On July 14th, 2025, Cole Westerlund suffered a tragic life changing spinal injury on a trampoline while visiting friends and playing with their kids.

He was rushed to the U of A hospital where it was determined that he fractured his C5 & C6 vertebrae in multiple places, inflicting severe damage to the spinal cord and paralyzing him from the chest down. He underwent surgery involving installing rods and plates to his neck, and removing the pressure from the spinal cord.

He was then placed in the neuroscience ICU for 10 days and then transferred to the neurosurgery ward to heal while he was waiting to be transferred to the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. On Aug 1st he was transferred to the Glenrose where he began the recovery & rehabilitation process and had further assessments.

The doctors are not sure what the long term recovery will be as the spinal cord takes a long time to heal and we are still in the early stages of recovery. They are optimistic about his upper body and with rehabilitation, hope to make him fully independent. We hope that he may gain some or all of lower bodily function back, but only time will tell. We do know that Cole is very determined to work hard and stay positive. He wants to be able to ride a horse again someday.

Those of you that know Cole, know that he is an incredibly active person and unfortunately he will not be able to do the activities that he loves while he is recovering. Whether it be roping steers, snowboarding, fishing or just hanging with friends, Cole always has a smile and positivity that is contagious. He is already approaching this challenge with his usual grit and positive attitude, however he’s going to need our support to get through this.

Cole and Shilo would like to thank everyone for their continued support, words of encouragement, well wishes and prayers. They are also extremely grateful for Shilo to be able to stay at her brothers house in the city and their parents and neighbors for looking after their acreage so that she can be at the hospital every day with Cole.

Thank you to everyone who has donated gift cards and monetary donations. As they continue on this journey, they will mostly likely need to do modifications to the house, need specialized equipment and physical therapy devices for Cole and income support for his unemployment.

Any donations and prayers are well appreciated as we navigate through this difficult time.

~ Shilo Westerlund & Family