FDA Official’s Son Breaks His Neck Wrestling

A high school wrestler, the son of the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, was in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit of Washington Hospital Center today after breaking his neck during a match in suburban Maryland.

Jonathon Young, 17, a 112-pound senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, broke his sixth and seventh vertebrae Friday night, attending physician Michael Dennis said.

Young fell in a “freak position” while trying to escape from opponent Darren Mills of Sherwood High School during his second match of the day at the Magruder holiday tournament at Magruder High School in Rockville, Dennis said.

“He fell forward on his head and snapped his neck. There was no illegal hold,” he said.

Young, son of Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Frank E. Young, faces six months to a year of rehabilitation and probably will require surgery, Dennis told the Washington Post.