Kentucky boy suffers major brain damage after head-on collision
On his fifth birthday, Rylandâs mom shared a heartbreaking Instagram post, sharing that âhis life wasnât supposed to go past age four.â
Called a âwarriorâ by his mother who became a stranger to him after a car crash left him brain damaged, the little boy is slowly showing signs of progress and learning again how to smile.
Keep reading to learn more about this determined little boy!
On November 21, Kentuckyâs Tiffany Owsley was driving home from the pediatric dentist, with her husband Joe and their two children, Maddix, now one, and Ryland or âBlaze,â now five.
The two kids were buckled up in the back, Maddix in his rear-facing childâs seat, and according to mom, Ryland, too, was strapped into his booster.
Ryland, who was watching videos on his fatherâs iPhone, was eagerly making plans for his December 5th birthday, telling his mom and dad âwhat he wanted for his birthday.â
âAnd then we wrecked,â Tiffany said in a clip she shared on social media. âIt was pouring rain. We just went around a curve, lost traction of the vehicle and collided head on with another vehicleâŠit was a pretty high impact accident.â
The baby had a broken leg, Tiffanyâs head âhad to be stapled back together,â and Joe suffered a broken back.
Meanwhile, Ryland got the worst of it.
When emergency officials arrived at the scene, the little boy, who wasnât breathing, sustained multiple brain injuries and a huge gash above his eye, which Tiffany says was caused from the impact of the phone hitting his fragile little head.
â[Ryland has] tearing all over the whole brain, like the whole nervous system is torn. The big cut over his eye is from my husbandâs cell phone he was holdingâŠâ
She adds, âHe sustained multiple skull fractures face fractures from that phone. That was the only answer for it. It was the phone because he didnât bust his head. Nothing like that like, he didnât hit [any] windows, nothing. The brain injuries we cannot say where that came from, I guess just maybe the severe the violent blow of the head from the phone or just shaking of your head.â
Tiffany â also mom to baby Patience, who died less than one month after she was born in April 2021 and Ryder, who has cerebral palsy â said in his earlier days of recovery, âweâre not sure that [Ryland] understood who me and his dad were.â
Sharing Rylandâs journey of recovery online, Tiffany received millions of messages with love and prayers.
Speaking of the life thatâs still visible in his oftentimes vacant eyes, one netizen writes, âThose eyes are not emptyâŠyou can see that he understands..the brain is miraculous..I see so much hope.â A second shares, âcan see everything in those beautiful baby eyes. He hears you, he sees you, heâs confused but I see him in those eyes.â
Meanwhile, some cybernauts suggest if Ryland was secured in a booster seat, he would have been safe.
Responding to critics who question her narrative of the seating situation, Tiffany clarifies, â[Ryland] was 100% buckled if he was not buckled, he wouldâve been out the windshield, he wouldâve been done. He was in the backseat buckled in his booster car seat, my nine-month-old was in his rear facing car seat.â
Begging users to stop spreading hate and doubting Rylandâs position in the car, the mom said the worst thing sheâs had to overcome were the frequent calls, urging the family to come to his room because doctors âdidnât think he would make it through the night.â
Slow recovery
After spending one month at Kentucky Childrenâs Hospital, where he celebrated his 5th birthday on the same day he started breathing without support, Ryland was transferred to Cincinnatiâs Childrenâs Hospital for rehabilitation.
Tiffany shares that his eyes are starting to connect with his surroundings and he âhas to itch that healing abrasion above his eye⊠thatâs purposeful.â
And he also learned how to smile again.
âHeâs starting to really have good head control for [tree to five] mins at a time. Weâre still working on it though [and] working on trunk control,â Tiffany shares, adding that Ryland is âcatching himself, even standing with [physical therapy.â
She adds, âIt seems like heâs really putting in the work now.â
Before he was released from rehab on February 21, Ryland had a speaking valve placed on his tracheotomy so he can communicate.
Spending the last night in hospital, Tiffany writes, â87 days post accidentâŠOur journey is only getting started.
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