Former Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy player to walk at graduation

Jackson Drum’s next step will be a small one in distance, but enormous in meaning: after a broken neck nearly took away his ability to walk, the former Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy player was preparing to cross the graduation stage at Alexandria Area High School.

Drum was 17 when he was injured on Jan. 24, 2025, in Vancouver, Canada, while playing for Coeur d’Alene Hockey Academy. He lost his edge and went head-first into the boards, then stopped breathing on the ice. Doctors at Vancouver General Hospital later fused his C1 and C2 vertebrae after the injury shattered the normal sense of certainty around what his body would do next.

At first, his family was told to brace for the worst. Early reports said doctors warned he might never walk again, use his hands again or breathe on his own again. The injury pulled his parents, Erica Drum and Jason Drum, into a months-long fight that reached far beyond a hockey rink and into intensive medical care, spinal surgery and rehabilitation.

The recovery has been slow and measurable, built on small victories that once seemed impossible. By March 2025, Drum had started to regain sensation and movement. Over time, he began to feel more in his body, move his fingers and breathe some on his own. FOX 9 reported that he was airlifted to Shepherd Center in Atlanta for specialized spinal cord rehabilitation, a step that underscored how serious the injury was and how much support his recovery required.

Now, more than a year after the crash in Vancouver, Drum was preparing for one of the first goals he set after the injury: walking at graduation. He said the moment mattered to him, and he also admitted he was nervous about falling. Alexandria Area High School listed its 2026 commencement ceremony for 5:30 p.m. on May 29 in the school gymnasium.

Drum’s path back to the stage carried meaning that reached past one athlete’s comeback. It reflected the work of his family, his therapists and the hockey community that rallied around him after a night that could have ended much differently. For Kootenai County readers who knew him during his time in Coeur d’Alene, the graduation walk is more than a ceremonial step. It is the end point of a year of fear, surgery and rehabilitation, and proof that the life he nearly lost on the ice is still very much his to live.