Eight months ago he couldn't walk, talk or feed himself. Now, he's able to walk at graduation
Lawton Chiles High School senior Owen Horton had to learn how to walk again after suffering multiple severe injuries — including brain trauma, a skull fracture, six broken vertebrae and a broken femur — from a single-vehicle truck crash eight months ago.
After undergoing a full recovery, Horton took one of the most anticipated walks of his lifetime as he walked the graduation stage Thursday.
“The first time I did physical therapy, I was so weak that I couldn't hold myself up,” Owen, 17, told the Tallahassee Democrat the morning before his graduation ceremony. “At that point I knew it was serious. It felt like a dream, if I'm being honest.”
Owen, a Tallahassee native, was driving on North Meridian Road in September — a mere mile away from home — when his truck started to break down and his vehicle went crashing into two trees on the side of the road as he remained stuck behind the wheel.
He was airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and spent three weeks in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit — unable to walk, talk or feed himself.
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"You can’t prepare yourself for that,” said Owen’s mother Malinda Horton, 58, who works as the executive director for the Florida Association of Museums. “It was lots of emotions and lots of crying.”
From March 2021 to the time of Owen’s crash, North Meridian Road has been the site of many other single-vehicle crashes, which led to at least four deaths — including two Chiles High School students — and three injuries.
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After spending three weeks in TMH’s ICU, Owen embarked on his recovery journey at Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida to re-learn how to walk before returning home to Tallahassee in October and doing outpatient rehab at TMH.
“We had the best doctors that we could have ever asked for," Malinda Horton said. "It's amazing how we had the greatest team that came together, and every single one of them was determined to get him through it.”
The hospital's facilities helped Owen with his physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.
Owen says that his main goal was to be walking by Christmas. After having his braces off Dec. 20, that’s exactly what he did.
“I learned how to walk again,” Owen said. “My other goal was to walk across the stage."
Owen went back to school in January, where he was surrounded by friends who have been supporting him all along. One of his teachers also worked with him at home to help him catch up in the months leading up to his return.
“I've never missed school so much in my life,” Owen said. “It was hard to find my normal when I got back because I didn't feel normal, but all my guys were there to walk in with me, and I just felt great.”
Despite missing months of his last year in high school, Owen was still able to enjoy the highlights of being a senior, such as going to prom.
Dr. John Dortch III, a trauma surgeon at TMH who helped care for Owen, credited Owen’s determination for the remarkable recovery.
“The fact that he will walk across the graduation stage is a testament to how hard he’s worked,” Dortch said in a prepared statement. “It makes us all really proud to see a kid put so much work into his own care and come out like this.”
Owen's plans after graduating are to attend Tallahassee Community College before transferring to Florida State University with the professions of being a chiropractor or a physical therapist in mind.
“I'm so incredibly proud of how strong he is and what he's accomplished,” his mother said. “I look back and I just can't believe it.”
The Chiles graduation ceremony took place Thursday, May 25 at 7 p.m.
“In a weird way I see how it was all pretty much worth it,” Owen said. “My whole family has always said everything happens for a reason. I might not know what that reason is quite yet, but I think I'm going to figure it out eventually.”
Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on twitter @tarahjean_.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Chiles High senior walks at graduation after car crash recovery
