Defying the odds and coming back strong

PHILO – Last September, doctors gave 16-year-old Richard "Tre" Liggett a 2 percent chance of surviving after a serious car crash on Ohio 60 in Duncan Falls.

They were surprised he didn't die during the ambulance ride to Genesis Good Samaritan Hospital. Then they didn't think he would make it through the medical helicopter transport to Columbus. Tre was not expected to live through the first few days in the hospital, and if by some miracle he did survive, doctors thought he would be in a persistent vegetative state.

But Tre defied the odds and the expectations, is walking and talking again, and gives his all in physical therapy to strengthen his body and mental coordination despite his serious injuries.

He suffered from a collapsed lung, his intestines were pushed into his chest cavity, his pancreas was lacerated, and his pelvis was shattered. He had four brain bleeds and a skull that separated from his spinal column in a typically fatal phenomenon called an internal decapitation, among other things.

Mentally, he has memory problems. Long-term, he can only recall up to a few years ago, and his short-term memory is too often inadequate. Physically, there is still a lot he can't do. But the 17-year-old Philo High School junior is happy he was able to attend his prom on Saturday.

"The past few weeks, I've been feeling good," Tre said. "I was depressed for a while."

He attends physical therapy three days every week to work on balance and coordination. Therapists try to simulate the crowded school hallways by making Tre walk while pushing him with inflated exercise balls.

And in the days leading up to Saturday, his therapists danced with him so, when he attended prom, he would be able to dance with his date.

In an attempt to help her son feel better about what had happened to him, Bobbi Tysinger told him about a young girl, about Tre's age, who died of less severe injuries after a car crash. Unfortunately, the story had the opposite affect.

Why, Tre thought, would God save me and not her? Why did I survive just to have so many problems physically and mentally?

Bobbi is trying to raise money for a road trip for Tre, who loves traveling, to help lift his spirits and remind him that life can be beautiful. To donate, go to www.gofundme.com/po99v8.

It helps that he was elected prom king at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Rehab Prom two weekends ago. Mariah Moore, another Philo student who was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash last year, was elected queen. As Tre said, with a wry grin, they were elected because they were the best.

As a parent, Bobbi is thrilled with his progress.

"I've got him back, and I don't care if it's different," she said. "It could have been so much worse."

But she understands his perspective. He used to play sports. He was a bright kid. Now most of that has been stripped away.

"Who wouldn't be depressed?" Bobbi said. "Who wouldn't be frustrated?"

During his first surgeries after arriving at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Tre received enough blood for three people. His skull was fused to his spinal column with metal plates and rods. He will never again be able to move his neck.

With the traumatic brain injury also came some personality changes. He's a lot less patient than he used to be and more prone to emotional outbursts, especially anger. His speech is delayed. He has some trouble processing language. He curses more.

But he's also more outgoing. He laughs more. He's started making notes for himself for when he forgets. He's thinking about college. He's even thinking about when he'll get his driver's license back.

"He's a dreamer," Bobbi said. "(I'm) a day-to-day person."

When Tre went back to school a couple of weeks ago, one of his teachers gave him some math problems he'd successfully completed before the accident. But he couldn't do them and had no idea how he had done them before.

Tre knows what happened to him. And he's aware that he's forgetting things, which frustrates him.

His friends, however, have been awesome. Tre is still on a liquid diet, and all of his close friends know exactly how to mix his prescription drinks. They'll mix them when they're all out in public together. They don't care.

With Tre's balance and coordination issues, for a while, he had a long belt tied around his waist, which someone would have to hold on to so he wouldn't fall. His friends had no problem grabbing onto him or catching him if he stumbled.

"I think he has got the best group of buddies," Bobbi said. "They've got his back 100 percent. That's helped."

The day of the crash, Tre was leaving a friend's house and knew he shouldn't back his vehicle out onto Ohio 60, so he tried to turn around in the driveway, but another vehicle parked near the road blocked his vision. He was with two friends, and one got out to check the traffic on 60.

In the time it took for his friend to get back into his car and report the all-clear, a southbound vehicle appeared and hit Tre's car as he pulled into the road.

Bobbi was out to dinner with friends. Her cellphone was on vibrate and in her purse, so she missed the call from the father of Tre's best friend. After dinner, in the parking lot, she called him back. He told her to get to the hospital.

She knew Tre was in a crash, but she didn't know whether he was alive. And in the emergency room, she recalled thinking: "You're supposed to just sit there and wait for news."

Bobbi is a nurse and knew a lot of the staff working in the ER that night. The staff told her he looked bad. Really bad. So bad they wouldn't let her take the flight to Columbus with her son.

She got the call from Life Flight when she was still 20 minutes outside Columbus — Tre was still alive. Barely.

Bobbi has almost no photos of him in the hospital, and what she has were taken weeks into his stay. For a long time, she thought, as soon as she or anyone else took a photo, that would be the last picture taken of her son before he died.

She hasn't been taking many photos after he was released from the hospital either. Each one of him in his neck brace reminds her of his injuries and the crash.

But on Friday, doctors determined that the neck brace could go, just in time for prom. Bobbi thinks that, despite the scars, she'll be taking a lot more photos now.

ksnyder2@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

740-450-6752

Twitter: @KL_Snyder

How to Help

Bobbi Tysinger, Tre's mother, is trying to raise money for a trip for her son. Tre has been depressed about his injuries and loves to travel, and Bobbi thinks a trip will help lift his spirits. To donate, go to www.gofundme.com/po99v8.