Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Member of Michigan State’s 2017 recruiting class had to be airlifted after jet ski accident

It’s been a trying last 24 hours news-wise for Michigan State’s most recent recruiting class.

Overnight, reports surfaced that Jacub Panasiuk, a 2017 MSU signee, had been issued an alcohol citation on his official visit to East Lansing in January. Now, the aunt of Lashawn Paulino-Bell, another 2017 Spartans signee, has revealed on a GoFundMe page that her nephew was injured in a jet-skiing accident on a vacation to the Bahamas and had to be airlifted to a Miami hospital for further treatment.

From the page created to help the family with medical expenses:

On April 16, 2017, while on a family vacation in the Bahamas my nephew, Lashawn Paulino the Defensive End for the Saint Thomas Aquinas Raiders and current Michigan State University Commit, was in a jet-skiing accident. He was rushed to Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport, Bahamas however they were not equipped for nor did they have the man power to treat his injuries and as a result he was airlifted to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He is currently in stable condition and I have faith that the amazing staff at Ryder Trauma will take great care of him and have him back to himself in no time.

A high school teammate of the defensive end confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that Paulino-Bell sustained unspecified internal injuries and is currently listed in stable condition.

It’s unclear what if any impact the accident will have on Paulino-Bell’s availability for the start of summer camp in early August.

247Sports.com had Paulino-Bell listed as a three-star 2017 recruit and rated him as the No. 44 weakside defensive end in the country. Prior to the injury, the 6-4, 235-pound lineman had been expected to contribute immediately as a true freshman.