On October 16, 2010, Norton fractured his C3 and C4 vertebrae in the 3rd quarter of play during a football game against Central College in Decorah, Iowa.
He was transported off the field via ambulance and taken for emergency care to Winnishiek Medical Center where doctors stabilized him for an airlift to neighboring Mayo Clinic.
[citation needed] He spent the next five days in the ICU before being transferred to rehab for near-daily occupational and physical therapy sessions over the next four months.
In March 2011 he moved into the Ronald McDonald house of Rochester and continued rehab in Mayo Clinic's outpatient program for the next three months.
[4] On May 20, 2011, Norton moved back home to Bondurant, Iowa and regained enough strength throughout his torso and arms to operate a power assisted wheel chair by the fall of 2011.
[6] In 2012, Norton and his family founded the SCI CAN Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to raise money for individuals with spinal cord injuries in Iowa and the Midwest.