Kyle Ritchie has 'achieved the impossible' after doctors said he would never walk again
"The medics said that if Kyle had fallen out of a window 10 storeys high the injuries to his spine wouldn’t have been as severe," says Donna Burns, four years on from that unforgettable day. "They said the only thing they could compare it to was like someone being shot in the back with a shotgun."
From her home in Ayrshire, Burns is recalling a conversation with doctors at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, when she was left with a devastating question that no parent should ever have to ask; how do you tell your 13-year-old son that he will never walk again?
On May 9, 2019, aspiring footballer Kyle was getting ready to train with Galston Boys' Club when he felt a sharp pain in his lower back during a routine warm-up. At first, the talented forward thought it was a slipped disc but unbeknownst to everyone, including the team physio who applied deep heat to the affected area, things were about to get much worse.
After being rushed to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock – a 14-minute drive from the training ground – Kyle's condition began to deteriorate.
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He remembers being stuck in the waiting room for hours before being treated by members of staff. "It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced so they put me on pain medication and morphine," Kyle tells us. "When I woke up, I was in a completely different room."
The teenager opened his eyes to see mum Donna alongside several doctors, who simply asked: 'Kyle, can you lift up your legs please.'
"I just couldn’t do it," he remembers. "I was in shock. I didn’t know what to say; so I tried to walk and just collapsed straight away. I was escorted to the Queen Elizabeth, where I received the news that I had an extremely rare type of spinal stroke fibrocartilaginous embolism."
A clot on his spinal cord meant Kyle was completely paralysed from the chest down.
Medics in Glasgow had never witnessed an injury so severe, so they discussed the matter with a team of experts from London. Soon, the family were informed that their son would likely spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Donna says she will never forget that moment. “The doctor took me and his dad into a separate room and started showing us pictures of his tear," she says. "I asked, 'Will he walk?' and he answered no. The embolism had torn his cord. I remember running out of the room crying saying, 'You don’t know my boy'. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
After learning of the news, there was a burning question on Kyle's mind. "I remember asking, 'Does that mean I'll never play football again?' and they said, 'Definitely not but the best we can do is to try and get you on crutches for at least an hour a day.' My dream was to become a professional footballer. It was my first season of 11-aside as well. I never got to finish it.”
He initially struggled to come to terms with the paralysis, as anybody would. But a determined Kyle was intent on walking again; even if the odds were stacked against him.
A month after the incident he was deemed strong enough to start physiotherapy, so staff at the hospital would rub his legs so they didn't clot up. Injections and scans followed – a process that was exhausting, to say the least. "At one stage, I felt like the world was against me," Kyle says. "I remember asking, 'Why me at this young age?'
"But I couldn't just sit there and be sad about my situation. I was desperate to prove the doctors wrong."
As well as the overwhelming support from family and friends, a number of high-profile names in the world of football would send their best wishes as he continued to recover from the spinal unit. Rangers captain James Tavernier sent across a personalised message to "keep fighting and stay strong".
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp also penned an emotional letter before inviting Gers fan Kyle to meet the squad at Melwood. “Firstly, I hope you don't mind me writing to you but I heard about your story and I just want to let you know that everyone in the Liverpool family is supporting you right now," he said.
Klopp added: "I have been told that you have a brilliant family around you and that they are doing everything they can to support you. Just as they were with you, in body or spirit, when you scored a great goal in the cup final, they are also with you now."
After weeks of progress, an unexpected breakthrough happened when his left big toe started to move ever so slightly. As soon as that happened, Kyle started to believe. He would spend three hours in the gym each day, working constantly on his legs and back to improve stability.
Doctors, meanwhile, were left shocked by Kyle's dramatic improvement when it came to his overall mobility. "They couldn’t believe it was the same boy they had seen before," he smiles. "They couldn’t have been happier and were genuinely excited.
"I was absolutely knackered, even after walking ten steps but two months after being told I’d never walk again, I was back on my feet. I told myself I was going to walk again."
At the end of 2019, just six months after the harrowing incident at Galston Boys' Club in East Ayrshire, Kyle made his unprecedented return to the football pitch. A miracle? Absolutely. But it was no coincidence. It wouldn’t have happened had it not been for hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears.
Kyle played the final eight minutes of a game in March 2020. He was, in his own words, over the moon. "I’ve only played a few minutes here and there since but I get tired really easily and my legs are always in agony after every training season. It's worth it, though."
Through sheer hard work and perseverance, the 17-year-old forward achieved what many medical experts thought impossible when he scored a 67th-minute goal for Ayrshire side Darvel FC – a club that recently knocked Aberdeen out of the Scottish Cup.
The Vale secured an emphatic 4-1 win over Bellfield FC at the end of last month and to top it off, it was their final game of the 2022/23 campaign.
Darvel FC manager Fraser Gall texted Kyle on the Sunday morning to apologise for his lack of minutes this season before letting him know about his place in the squad. Then, in the 50th minute, Gall gave him the longest stretch of first-team action since the incident in 2019.
“I’m extremely proud of Kyle, as is everyone connected with the club," Gall tells us. "He has been on a rollercoaster of a journey over the past four years but he always has a smile on his face and just gets on with it."
"His goal was the icing on the cake. He deserved the moment of scoring on the big occasion, just like he used to do. It was the biggest cheer of the night as everyone was rooting for him to score. Credit to his teammate Aidan who could have gone for goal himself but played the pass to Kyle who finished it brilliantly."
Kyle says the occasion didn't fully sink in until he got home.
"I remember thinking about the day when I got told I’d never walk again and now I’m playing with the league champions," he says. "Four years on and I’m feeling better than ever. I want to thank my coaches at the club, my friends and my family who have been there for me at my lowest. Those words of encouragement got me to where I am now. It means everything."
Donna, meanwhile, wasn't there to see the goal after going through major surgery last year but she was, and still is, the proudest woman in Scotland.
"I don’t think there was a dry eye in Ayrshire when he scored that goal," she says. "He was knackered for days."
Jack Kenmare