'The Nurse Told My Mom I Had Died'

For Tyler Brummett, life changed on July 6, 2015. However, he doesn't remember most of the events that ultimately led to the end of his football career.

"I remember making the pizza and getting ready to take it out the door (for a delivery) but I never remember taking it out the door or getting into my car," said Brummett. "Then everything shuts off until I woke up in the hospital. They said I would never remember the actual events of that day or anything. They told me I was in my car going down a state highway and as I was crossing traffic, there was two lanes going one way and a little intersection where the guy was supposed to yield to me, and as I pulled out he T-boned me. He was speeding going like 70 when he hit my car. I slid and took out three signs along the highway. The guy was going 70 and in the police report, they said he didn't show any signs of breaking or to avoid me. They said he had to have been distracted, playing with the CD player, texting, something like that. Going 70 in a 60. He was in a Suburban. I was in a little Oldsmobile, little car I had just to get me through high school.

"Our local hospital is just down the road so at first they rushed me to the local hospital and I was unconscious the whole time," Brummett continued. "Like I said, I don't remember any of this; just what they've told me. They thought since I had a cavity in my chest that one of my lungs had collapsed. So my breathing was kind of slow but my heart was still going and everything. From the point they flew me from the local hospital to UC (hospital) because they had suspected a brain injury and the local hospital wouldn't do everything they needed to do so they air-cared me to UC. My mom said the flight nurse actually called her while I was on flight and told her that I had died. I had passed away on the flight in the helicopter. My heart rate flat lined and I wasn't breathing like I literally died, then a few minutes passed and I started breathing again."

While Brummett suffered no broken bones, he suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was in intensive care for nine days, and slept for nearly the entire time.

Once healed enough to leave ICU, Brummett was transferred to Drake Rehabilitation Center, where he had to learn how to survive from scratch.

"They started putting me through some rehab stuff and my parents said that they had to teach me how to walk again, how to get dressed, how to eat again. I didn't even know how to swallow," said Brummett. "I went nine days without eating the whole time I was in the ICU. Whenever they had to teach me everything they said it was like raising a baby again because I had forgotten how to do everything."

Even though has he progressed through rehab, his memory still didn't fully return. Brummett said he only remembers the last few days of his three-week stay at Drake.

Waking up with wires attached and his family surrounding him in a hospital left Brummett a bit puzzled.

"I'm lying in the hospital bed with wires all hooked up to me like what the (heck) is going on I felt normal," said Brummett. "I was like what the (heck) is going on so. I said, 'Dad what's going on?' and he said, 'You were in a car wreck. How you feeling?' I said, 'Wait, I was in a car accident. And my dad pulled up some pictures of my car and I was like awe (stuff) that's actually my car. I guess I was in a wreck. They were telling me that it happened like a month ago and I had just woke up. I was like wait, I've been asleep for a month?"

While nurses informed him that he had multiple visitors, the first memories of visitors were Wilmington teammates Sterling Clark and P.J. Meyer.

For Meyer, the experience was almost surreal given the fact the two had spent the Fourth of July together.

"I visited him regularly and I don't think he remembers me being there at all until he went to Drake," said Meyer. "It was really hard for me to know he doesn't know I'm there. I'm his teammate, seeing him just a few days ago and then him being in an accident like that. Seeing his mom like that, his friends and family. Like you can't put yourself in that situation but I just tried to be there for him and be moral support for his mom and stuff."

Brummett was eventually released and allowed to return home in West Union. His memory started to return as he could recall some inside jokes with his friends, and he was running through plays from the Wilmington College playbook through his head. Even before he was even cleared to drive, Brummett was planning his return to the gridiron. One of doctor's told him early in the process that playing football wasn't out the realm of possibility.

It was back to the weight room, and he was ready to dispel the notion that it was going to take nearly a year for him to return to full strength.

"I remember telling him specifically, I was kind of being a smart (butt), you know you don't know who you're talking to, I'll get back faster than that. I was like a year? That's dumb. It won't take that long. I went to the weight room and I busted my (butt) for probably around 10 weeks and I was back to all my original weight room numbers strength-wise."

Things were looking up for him, and then he went to a brain specialist. She informed him there were two sports she doesn't clear patients to return to: hockey and football.

"That was probably the toughest part of all of this, yeah you know I'm extremely blessed and lucky to be alive but on the flip side football and sports had been 20 years of my life," said Brummett.

It was also back to the business of returning to school to finish his degree in Sport Management.

"I still wanted to come here," he said. "I didn't want to transfer. I had already made it two years and made all my friendships here. So, I decided to stay and stick it out."

Once he passed the tests – two of them, five hours in length – to determine if he was capable of handling the college setting, once again his thoughts returned to football.

While he could no longer suit up, there was still a position for him with the Fightin' Quakers' football team, according to head coach Stacey Hairston.

"Once it was apparent that he would be healthy enough to return to school to continue his education and knowing that his football career was over, to me he is a part of our family and having around as a coach almost seems like the next natural step," Hairston said. "Having Tyler back with us is truly a blessing. Surviving what he has gone through is a miracle by itself. Being in the hospital and fighting for his life is a true testament of never quitting no matter how bleak the situation, and it serves as an excellent example for our players to follow when they get down on themselves and think they cannot do something. When they look at him, it will give them inspiration to fight no matter what."

So as the football program fights through the 2016 season, they have a real survivor on the coaching staff fighting right along with them.