Kavan Markwood, the fan who fell over the Clemente Wall at a Pittsburgh Pirates-Chicago Cubs game last week, remains hospitalized and has started physical therapy.
“I’m all right,” Markwood told TribLive on Wednesday in his first interview since the incident. “I can’t really sleep. I have a lot of back pain.”
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He spoke to Trib Live before a physical therapy appointment and said he has not watched any videos of his 21-foot fall from the right-field stands at PNC Park on April 30. Markwood hit a wall on the way down and landed on the warning track, where medical staff took him off the field on a stretcher. The 20-year-old arrived at Allegheny General Hospital in critical condition.
Dr. Al Philp, Allegheny General’s chief medical officer, confirmed to WTAE that Markwood suffered injuries to his skull, spine, ribs and lungs.
“I’m happy to say that he’s progressed well,” Philp told WTAE on Wednesday. “He’s at a point now where he’s off the breathing machine, he’s out of the intensive care unit, and is preparing to move on to the next step, which will be physical therapy, rehab.”
As of Thursday afternoon, a GoFundMe account raising money for Markwood’s medical bills had received over $58,000 in donations, nearly matching its $60,000 goal. Jennifer Phillips, who described herself as the mother of Markwood’s girlfriend, started the GoFundMe.
Phillips has provided updates on Markwood’s health on the GoFundMe page and shared Monday that he took his first steps in the hospital. Phillips wrote Saturday that Markwood was “awake, alert, and able to speak.”
Markwood graduated from South Allegheny High School near Pittsburgh in 2022. He played football at South Allegheny and later at Walsh University and Wheeling University.
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
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