AKRON, Ohio — Injuries are common in the sports world.
A 2024 report by the National Safety Council said there were more than 4 million people treated in emergency departments for injuries involving sports and recreational equipment.
According to 2024 data from USA Cheer, females ages 12 to 18 showed cheerleading had the least number of reported emergency room visits at 22,313 when compared to basketball at 46,795, soccer at 39,085, volleyball at 29706 and softball at 29,052.
One former cheerleader in Ohio had a career-ending injury that forced her out of the sport and pushed her into another one.
Shae Eichele-Gawry was a cheerleader, gymnast and lifelong athlete. She started when she was just over a year old.
“I was told to fly the stunt,” said Shae Eichele-Gawry, a former cheerleader turned bodybuilder. “It was a very advanced stunt for the group, but we did it and unfortunately, after three tries, I was dropped.”
In Jan. 2018, Eichele-Gawry was a cheerleader at Cleveland State University. While at practice, Eichele-Gawry and her teammates were practicing a stunt. After several attempts she was dropped and leaving her with a career-ending injury.
“I was so mad I couldn’t even cry a tear,” said Eichele-Gawry. “I tore, fractured, broke many things in the lower leg and the ankle.”
After her injury, Eichele-Gawry had multiple surgeries, including reconstructive surgery and one where bone screws had to be removed. She went to therapy, followed her treatment plan, and did everything the doctors told her to do, but was still in constant pain.
“I would cry myself to sleep every night,” said Eichele-Gawry. “I was taking 20 to 30 ibuprofen a day just to try to go to work.”
She eventually received a second opinion and met Dr. Salim Hayek, the Vice Chair of the Clinical Research Department of Anesthesiology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center.
Hayek diagnosed Eichele-Gawry with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in 2020, two years after her injury. CRPS is a rare disorder that affects 0.05% of the U.S. population, or 200,000 people.
Cleveland Clinic said CRPS is a condition that causes pain, changes in skin color, and other symptoms in a certain part of your body, usually in the extremities. The disorder is caused by nerve trauma or injury to the affected area. Hayek and Eichele-Gawry started with less invasive procedures, including spinal injections, ketamine infusion and eventually implanted the Abbott Proclaim Dorsal Root Ganglion device on her spine.
“Treatments have been through neurostimulation, which involves stimulating nerves that supply the painful area,” said Hayek.
Today, Eichele-Gawry is an award-winning bodybuilder with the help of the Abbott Proclaim DRG device. The device was implanted in 2021. The device sends low-intensity electrical impulses to the affected nerve structures. It is controlled remotely and used to minimize pain.
“We place wires first introduced through a needle that target the area close to the origin of the nerve root that goes down to the affected,” said Hayek. “The areas that hold the brain center of the nerves that go to the foot, or the lower leg and that can be used to manage the pain through electric current.”
CRPS doesn’t have a cure, but it can be managed with physical therapy, pain medication, nerve blocks and psychological support.
CRPS is known to stop or slow physical activity for those diagnosed, like Eichele-Gawry.
“When everything had happened, and I had the reconstructive surgery on my leg and had the stimulator put in, it was a very slim chance that I was going to get back to living a super active lifestyle,” said Eichele-Gawry.
Now, six years after her diagnosis, Eichele-Gawry beat her odds. She trains with her personal trainer Gary Chaney in Akron and her coach Alex Kaplan from Florida.
Chaney is also a bodybuilder and has competed in nearly two dozen shows since 2006. He started training people in 2008. He’s trained athletes, kids, the elderly, but no one with an implant like Eichele-Gawry.
Chaney said it hasn’t been a challenge working with Eichele-Gawry, but it does push him to come up with more creative movements that target certain muscles without putting her in pain.
“It’s important to be on the same page with anybody you train,” said Chaney. “Regardless of, you know, hers is certainly unique, but it’s communication.”
Eichele-Gawry has been friends with Chaney for several years. He said he watched her transform. Chaney said Eichele-Gawry is self-driven, motivated, and a hard worker.
Before the implant, Eichele-Gawry said she suffered through depression and even had suicidal thoughts.
Since she received the implant, she has been able to live a more active lifestyle, accomplish new physical goals, and continue to set new ones.
“Bodybuilding has showed me that I don’t have to be like this vegetable,” said Eichele-Gawry. “I can push the limits, and I could do it in a safe way, and I can still be active and competitive.”
Eichele-Gawry’s competed in her first show in Oct. 2023. She said she not only fell in love with the sport but also with the process. She won first place in the Figure division in 2023 and moved into the Bikini division in 2025.
Her next show will be in August this year.
