Tyler Priest’s journey back from accident

CINDY WOOD/independent feature writer

Tyler Priest is your typical 18-year-old. He’s pretty stoked that school’s out for summer. He’s overprotective of his two kid sisters, and he’s looking forward to his senior year of high school. What isn’t so typical, though, is the journey he has taken to get him where he is today.

That journey for Priest, son of Bob Priest and Kara Kreger, began July 6, 2008. The sun was beating down on that Fourth of July weekend and the countryside in rural Van Wert County was lined with tractors as farmers busily tended their crops. Priest had grown up appreciating the country life and was more than happy to help his friends as they baled hay in a field south of Van Wert.

“He had actually wanted to bale hay for quite a while, but we had told him he had to wait until he was twelve,” said Tyler’s father, Bob. “The wagon had gotten full, and Ty was off the wagon because there was only room for a couple of them.”

With a seat open beside his friend, Tyler attempted to jump up on the tractor. “I’ve done it. A lot of people do it,” Priest said. “The tractor wasn’t going very fast, so Ty thought he could just jump up on it.”

But when he lost his footing and fell to the ground, the tractor’s back tire ran over his body and head, ultimately causing a bleed on Tyler’s brain stem. Clinging to life, he was flown to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., where doctors didn’t have good news for the family.

“The neurosurgeon told us he was already gone and it was just a matter of his body catching up with him,” Bob said, adding, “the ER doctor told us we had twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The biggest issue we were facing was whether or not he would survive.”

Doctors knew the extent of Tyler’s injuries. What they didn’t know was the amount of fight Tyler still had in him. Comatose and battling a myriad of complications from his injuries, Tyler began showing small, but steady, signs of progress. The family celebrated each and every small milestone with a blog that kept the community updated on Tyler’s progress.

“Day 21 … three weeks in. The steps are small but miraculous nonetheless. He has been off the vent for over 24 hours and has been doing very well with an oxygen mask. The chest tube is still in. He still remains in a coma, but is following simple commands.”

The improvements, and setbacks, kept coming. Throughout those critical first few months, Bob said he learned to never say never.

“I think the most important thing I’ve learned from Ty over the last five years is that you never count him out,” Priest said, adding, “because this was most definitely a situation where he wasn’t even supposed to make it.

“There are a lot of things that Ty is not supposed to do that he has done,” Priest added. “He wasn’t supposed to wrestle, and he’s wrestled. He wasn’t supposed to win, and he’s won. He continues to find ways to achieve his goals.”

One of those goals Ty has set for himself is going to college. It’s a lofty goal, Priest said, but one that is not out of the realm of possibility.

“Right now, it would be pretty tough for him to take care of himself, but I just can never say no to him because he’s proven us wrong too many times,” Priest noted. “My guess is if he wants to go, he’ll find a way to become independent, take care of himself and do it. He just may not be on the same time schedule as everybody else.”

What is on schedule is his graduation in 2014 from Van Wert High School. “He will graduate with his class next year and we’re pretty proud of that,” Priest said, adding that Tyler’s teachers and aides at the school have been tremendous throughout his recovery.

“They are so good at working with him and pushing him to do his best,” Priest said. “We just couldn’t ask for any better.”

In a long list of accomplishments, Tyler’s most recent might be his most memorable. The Van Wert High School administration is currently clearing another spot on “the wall” for Ty’s picture after a sixth-place finish in the state at the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s state track and field meet.

Participating in the first-ever state meet for wheelchair competitors, Priest needed to throw 9 feet to qualify for the meet. He did that at the 11th hour with a qualifying throw of 9 feet, 10 inches at the Western Buckeye League meet.

Getting there, though, was not easy. “I think he started around six or six-and-a-half feet at the beginning of the season,” Priest said. “But each meet he would get a little better and he actually ended up setting a personal record in every meet but one.”

Even still, his personal best was still 12 inches away from a qualifying throw. “On Monday of the last week for him to qualify, he PR’d at eight feet. We still needed him to get that extra foot and he had come close at practice, but he hadn’t gotten there yet.”

In typical “Ty” fashion, he got there – big time – with his best ever throw at the WBL meet, earning him a chance to compete at the state meet. Ty needed to place sixth or better to earn a spot on the wall at the school.

“We knew it was going to be tough. But as it happened, Ty finished sixth and set another PR,” Priest said, adding, “in fairness to Ty, he was the only competitor with a traumatic brain injury and most of the kids there have had their situation their entire lives and adapted.

“But Ty also had an advantage that he is able to use his legs,” Priest said. “We’re just happy that these kids that normally don’t get a chance to compete had the opportunity to do that. It was just a really neat atmosphere.”

Competing isn’t enough, though, and Tyler is focused on improving his throw enough to eventually earn him a state championship. “Before the accident, he had always had a goal to be a four-time state champion in wrestling, and obviously that opportunity was taken from him,” Priest said. “I told him he’s placed at state and he should be proud of that. It’s a different event and it’s not exactly how he had envisioned it, but he still has the opportunity to be a state champion, so it’s something he’s definitely shooting for.”

Tyler’s drive to be the best he can be has kept him focused during his recovery from another major brain surgery in November 2012. After developing tremors similar to those associated with Parkinson’s disease, doctors inserted two rods into his brain to serve as a deep brain stimulator. After the initial surgery to insert the rods in November, Tyler underwent another surgery in December and doctors turned the stimulator on in January.

Adverse effects from his medication forced another hospital stay for five weeks in March and April, but Tyler was determined to come back and compete. “The fact that he had something to go to was big for him,” Priest said, adding that Tyler had asked to postpone the surgery until after his high-school graduation so he could continue to compete.

“That was just a decision that he wasn’t allowed to make,” Priest said. “We were talking about quality of life and it just wasn’t in his best interest to postpone it.”

Priest is grateful for the progress Ty has made with the stimulator, although he admits he always would like to see more. “We would still like for the shaking to get better, but we are definitely so much further ahead than we were before the surgery,” he said.

Reflecting on the last five years, Priest said it’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs, but he is encouraged every day by Tyler’s progress and fortitude.

“I don’t know that I was a person that believed in miracles before, but I’m pretty confident I’ve seen one,” Priest said. “There is a purpose for everything. I don’t know what that is yet, but I know that I get to witness a miracle every day, and I’m pretty thankful for that.”