The well known member The Russian, AKA Mike Martinez, suffered a serious injury 4 weeks ago. As he was walking up his elevated front stairs, two of the neighborhood cats who sort of live on his front porch, came running down toward him. He took a small step backwards to avoid contact and the railing behind him gave way with "no resistence". He went head over heels about 8 feet to land on his head on the grass(missing concrete by 1-2 feet). Eventually tests showed that he suffered a fracture of the First Cervical Vertebrae, known as the Atlas. This is a very serious injury often associated with quadraplegia or death. Indeed when someone is hanged the mechanism of death is by fracture of the Atlas- called the Hangman's fracture.Very fortunately, Mike suffered neither of these, just some temporary paresthesias (numbness) which passed within a few days. He has been on bedrest and braces since, with considerable pain. Unfortunately the fracture has not yet showed any signs of healing and is judged to be unstable as is. He will find out within a few days about the likelihood of an operation to fuse the fracture- this would be a very serious procedure with possibility of complications, but let's hope not.I wish and hope the best for Mr Mike- among his many accomplishments are 31 years spent in the US Army, exiting as a full Col. I am sure everyone feels the same. Mike