Basketball Legend and Logan County Commissioner Willie Akers will be going to Georgia to continue his recovery following a fall at the Charleston Civic Center last month.
Speedy Bevins with MetroNews Affiliate WVOW Radio in Logan, an Akers family friend, says Akers will be transferred from Charleston Area Medical Center, where he’s spent three weeks, to the inpatient rehab facility near Atlanta, on Wednesday.
“This is a rehabilitation center that a fellow county commissioner, a member of his family used and they were very pleased with the results,” Bevins said on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline.
He says the rehab for Akers will last for 13 weeks, at least, and focus on two areas. “I think a lot of it is to be able to walk again but, also, I think there are concerns about his right arm as well.”
The fall happened on February 13th. Akers, 75, had his hands in his pockets when he fell, face first, onto the Civic Center’s floor following a basketball game.
Five days later, he had surgery at CAMC General to repair a broken nose and fractured C6 vertebra.
Bevins admits the road to recovery for Akers will be a long one. “It is, but at least there is a road and, hopefully, there’s that light at the end of the tunnel.”
Akers coached basketball at Logan High for more than 20 years. A graduate of Mullens High School, he played basketball at West Virginia University from 1958 to 1960.