Photo Credit Alicia Devine – Tallahassee Democrat
Malinda Horton was out of town when she got a phone call no mother ever wants to receive.
“You need to listen … Owen has been in a bad car accident,” her friend told her.
Earlier that night, Malinda’s, 17-year-old son Owen, then a student at Chiles High School, had pulled out of the driveway to meet up with a friend just down the road. After driving only about a mile, something broke on Owen’s pickup truck, sending it flying off the road into a canopy of trees. The roof of the truck caved in onto his head, wedging him inside.
When his friend showed up and realized what had happened, he quickly called 9-1-1. Firefighters spent about an hour extracting him before a helicopter transported him to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare’s (TMH) Bixler Trauma & Emergency Center, the only Level II Trauma Center in the region.
TMH Trauma Team Gets to Work
When Owen arrived at the hospital a little after 11 pm on Sept. 17, 2022, he had broken his femur, left kneecap, right shoulder and collarbone. He also had six broken vertebrae and a severely fractured skull. Before that night, Owen had never had so much as a broken bone or stitches in his 17 years of life.
Away on a work trip, Malinda was in Miami with no more flights back to Tallahassee for the night.
“I have played that moment over and over in my head,” she recounts a year later. As she drove through the night back to Tallahassee, she was worried she wouldn’t recognize her son when she arrived.
Luckily, Owen’s father, Dean, was able to get to the hospital quickly to be with him.
TMH’s trauma team quickly worked to stabilize Owen. The next day, Matthew Davis, MD, performed a craniotomy – a surgical procedure in which part of the skull is temporarily removed – to help reduce swelling and pressure on Owen’s brain.
When Malinda arrived in Tallahassee, Owen was in the Vogter Neuro and Trauma Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in TMH’s M.T. Mustian Center.
“I looked at him and I thought, ‘Wow, he still looks like Owen,’ ” she said. “To see all the tubes and everything, it’s just so surreal now. I told him that I’d switch places if I could.”
Owen was one of 2,030 patients with traumatic injuries treated by physicians in 2022 at TMH, which recently received reaccreditation as the region’s only Level II Trauma Center.
Owen Starts His Recovery
The Chiles High School senior spent parts of the next weeks in a coma while the Vogter ICU team cared for him. He couldn’t walk, talk or feed himself.
Owen underwent surgery with orthopedic surgeon Kyle Mobley, MD, to help repair his femur, and Dr. Davis fitted Owen with a back brace. His ICU care was overseen by John Dortch III, MD, Patton Pennington, MD and Megan Morrow, MD, three surgeons at TMH.
A countless number of Owen’s friends, family and even some teachers visited him at the hospital. He also received visits from TMH’s Animal Therapy teams. Owen doesn’t remember much from his time in the ICU, but he remembers his visitors.
“I remember wanting to curse everybody because I was so mad,” Owen said.
After 21 long days, Owen was discharged to an inpatient rehabilitation facility with two goals. First, to walk again before he got his back brace off. And second, to walk across the graduation stage in May with his Chiles High School class.
Owen spent another 21 days in inpatient rehab where he worked on walking and regaining his strength before returning home to a crowd of cheering family and friends who lined the family’s driveway.
Still in his back brace, Owen continued to work tirelessly toward his goal of walking – first using a walker, then a cane and eventually on his own.
Getting Back to Singing
Owen had regular appointments with TMH’s outpatient rehabilitation team for months – doing physical, speech and occupational therapies. He also worked with TMH’s music therapy team to strengthen his vocal cords and lungs so he could get back to doing something he loves – singing.
As children, Owen and his sister made videos around the house, pretending to put on concerts with Owen as the star. This pretend play evolved as Owen found himself continuing to sing and finding deeper meaning in music as he got older.
“When I was in rehab, I would lay in bed and listen to music and try to sing, but my vocal cords were pretty weak,” he said. “It honestly killed me to not be able to sing a song that I could before.”
TMH Music Therapist Ryan Johnson worked closely with Owen. When they started, Owen worked on learning how to breathe while singing in a way that helped him hold notes and access higher pitches.
Because Owen mostly sang at home, Owen’s music therapists also worked with him on building his confidence while singing in front of any audience.
“Music therapy was fitting with Owen’s rehab needs because he has such a love and passion for singing and that’s something that he did a lot prior to what happened to him,” Ryan said. “Music therapy was a really unique service in being able to address that need for him while he was receiving his other outpatient rehab services.”
Getting Back to ‘Normal’
Owen’s hard work in those outpatient rehab services paid off. On December 20, 2022, he walked unassisted into TMH where Dr. Davis removed his back brace. He had accomplished his first goal.
“It felt so great,” Owen said.
After his appointment, Owen and Malinda visited Vogter to thank the team who cared for him. They were all amazed and how far he had come.
“I love the feeling of hearing people’s reactions to seeing me now compared to how I was when I was in the hospital,” he said.
In January of 2023, Owen’s friends and teachers excitedly welcomed him back to school as he set his sights on his next goal – graduation.
Owen slowly started driving on his own again, and in February, his parents surprised him with a new truck of his own. He was blown away.
“I was itching to get back behind the wheel and listen to my music and just drive,” he said.
Owen made the most of what was left of his senior year – attending prom and receiving multiple awards from Chiles, including the Silver Wolf Award for his perseverance at his class convocation.
The crowd at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center erupted with cheers as Owen, despite the odds, walked across the graduation stage on May 25, 2023, to receive his diploma, just eight months after the accident. The Tallahassee Democrat and WCTV both interviewed Owen and Malinda and published stories about his inspiring recovery.
“I blacked out when they called my name,” Owen said. “Everybody went wild, and I just looked up at my family and I started crying.”
A Determination to Succeed
Dr. Dortch said Owen’s injuries upon admission to TMH were devastating, but credited Owen’s own resolve for his remarkable recovery.
“The fact that he walked across that graduation stage is a testament to how hard he’s worked,” Dortch said. “It makes us all really proud to see a kid put so much work into his own care and come out like this.”
Dr. Dortch also noted how much will Malinda had for her son.
“Malinda was extremely unique in the way that she remained positive throughout the whole process, and her unfaltering support of him had a lot to do with his recovery,” Dr. Dortch said.
The surgeon added that Owen had some of the most supportive and kind family and friends cheering him on while he was in the hospital.
“We were all inspired by that,” he said.
Now, Owen is enrolled at Tallahassee Community College. He hasn’t chosen a major yet, but he’s leaning toward human biology, as he aspires to be a chiropractor someday. He’s back to singing, going to the gym, playing video games, hanging out with friends and living the normal life of a 19-year-old.
Malinda says Owen’s wreck gave the family a new outlook.
“It changed every one of us,” Malinda said. “It impacted Owen in the worst and the best way. He’s more appreciative of life, more understanding and realizes how important friends and family are,” she said. “Life is precious, and you don’t take it for granted. You may not have tomorrow.”
TMH is the region’s only trauma center – providing advanced, comprehensive care to trauma patients like Owen. To learn more, visit TMH.ORG/Services/Trauma.
