Sports Information Director Rikki Cockrell recovers from accident

By Mark Schulman
Assistant Editor

UNCP’s Sports Information Director Rikki Cockrell was seriously
injured in a car accident on Tuesday Sept. 23 while driving to work. Cockrell was hospitalized in the Southeastern Medical Center in
Lumberton with a broken leg, ruptured pancreas and face
lacerations for 11 days and is now recovering at her home in
Rocky Mount, N.C.

Cockrell was driving from Fairmont along Chicken Road on that rainy
Tuesday morning. As she came along a curve, her car lost traction
crossing over to the opposite lane and hydroplaning into a ditch.

Cockrell’s car plowed 60 feet through the ditch until crashing into two drain tiles at 53 m.p.h. The car then rolled over on its side as it finally came to a stop.

Her leg was pinned under the steering wheel and she bled from a severe laceration above her nose.

“I can only remember turning off the ignition afterwards,” she said.

Emergency crews arrived and extracted her from the passenger side of her car. Cockrell was rushed to the Southeastern Medical Center emergency room.

The femur bone in Cockrell’s upper left leg below her hip broke under the pressure of the steering wheel during the impact.

While performing surgery immediately after the accident, doctors inserted a metal rod into her leg. The doctors also sewed up the laceration above her nose with 200 external stitches and countless internal stitches.

Cockrell’s mother came to the hospital from Rocky Mount to be at her daughter’s side as she recuperated in her hospital room.

Thirty-six hours following her surgery, Cockrell felt increasing pain in her abdominal area.
“I felt something was really wrong,” Cockrell said.

The internal medicine physician diagnosed Cockrell with a split pancreas on the evening of Wed. Sept. 24.

Early Thursday morning Cockrell went into surgery again where doctors had to remove half her pancreas.

Cockrell is now recovering at her mother’s home in Rocky Mount and is undergoing physical therapy to help her walk again.

“All of the faculty, staff and students who kept me in their thoughts and prayers and support was welcomed,” Cockrell said. “I am looking forward to returning to the university atmosphere in the next few weeks.”

She anticipates returning to UNCP within the next four weeks but in the meantime she will be working out of her Rocky Mount home.

Athletic Director Daniel Kenney said, “We will work with her to help her perform her duties while she recovers.”

Cockrell, a former UNCP student-athlete, began as the sports information director this year handling media relations for UNCP’s varsity sports.

She played basketball and softball for four seasons while earning her undergraduate degree in Mathematics at UNCP.

She was named Most Valuable Person 2001 for her talents on the Lady Braves basketball team and while she was on the softball team, she received the Coach’s Award.

As a graduate student, Cockrell was the assistant coach to the Lady Braves basketball team and graduate assistant to the former sports information director.