Once given a 15% chance to live, former USU athlete works to re-enroll in school

Once given a 15% chance to live, former USU athlete works to re-enroll in school

(Christy Holt)


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SALT LAKE CITY — This time last year, then-21-year-old car accident victim Brady Holt was lying in a coma, given a 15 percent chance to live.

His parents were told that if he did pull through and survive, he would be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. He would be unable to talk, walk, run or continue his passion of football.

“They had told us that, you know, if he survives and overcomes the injuries he has, the chances of him living (outside) of an assisted living home or something were just about nothing,” Brady’s father Tracy Holt said.

Today, the Holts' despair has been replaced with hope as Brady Holt's personality shines through while he not only walks and talks, but texts, changes oil in cars, posts on social media, attends football games and other activities that his family had once questioned if he’d ever be able to do again.

The accident occurred on May 14, 2016, when Holt was driving to Logan — where he was a freshman playing football at Utah State University. His parents said they believe he dozed off when he drifted into a construction zone and then overcorrected, causing the car to roll and Holt to be ejected through the front window.

Between an uncertain future, moving Brady Holt to three different recovery centers and the huge progress he has made, the Holts said the road to recovery has included both joy and frustration.

Holt started out at Ogden Regional Hospital, but with an unchanging diagnosis and wanting him to be closer to his home in Riverton, the Holts moved him to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray.

“At that point, things changed,” Christy Holt, Brady’s mother, said. “They wanted to give him every opportunity to recover.”

Christy Holt said that IMC was a better option for Brady because they had more experience working with trauma victims. He underwent back surgery so they could proceed with physical therapy. Doctors had to move his muscles frequently to prevent them from becoming stiff, and his parents were eventually able to take him outside in a wheelchair.

Although Brady’s eyes would open occasionally and he could somewhat participate in activities such as getting in and out of bed, he was still technically in a coma.

“When you think of somebody in a coma, you think their eyes are closed and they’re laying there and they’re not responsive, which is not true,” Christy Holt said. “It’s not like what you see on TV or on the movies where they just lay there still.”

Brady Holt was moved mid-June 2016 to Country Life Care Facility to continue his therapy.

“It was funny. Even though he couldn’t tell you he didn’t like it, you could tell he didn't like it,” Christy Holt said. “He got this very disgruntled look on his face.”

It was August 2016 when Holt said, “Mom,” his first word since the accident. After that, he was able to mimic others' actions and was declared to be out of a coma.

Holt has continued his recovery journey by doing physical, occupational and speech therapy each week.

“(Therapy’s) been a huge part of his recovery, because it’s making his brain have to work. You don’t realize that your brain is as big of a muscle as it is,” Christy Holt said. “They’re trying to retrigger muscle memory from things that the brain has done in the past.”

Holt no longer needs his wheelchair and is now using a walker. Christy said he’s doing a lot more things on his own, and they are making sure to keep him busy. Brady continues to work for a full recovery and has a goal to go back to school and become a physical therapist.

“The prognosis he was given in the beginning? He surpassed that so far,” Tracy Holt said. “It’s just kind of up to him and what he can push himself to. He’s coming back mentally, where he’s thinking independently for himself.”

Christy and Tracy Holt attribute getting this far through recovery to their close friends, family and faith, especially at the beginning when Brady’s future was so uncertain.

“When we hit the one year anniversary, we were all talking about when we were in the hospital when he was in the ICU, we had a nurse tell us … ‘You’re doing everything right. Give it a year. Give it one year and see where he’s at,’” Christy Holt said. “At that time, we couldn’t even grasp where he was gonna be at in a year, and then you look at what he does now and you think, in a year, he could be going back to school. He could be able to hold a job.”

Brady was part of the USU football team before his accident. During recovery, he was visited by the football team and has since attended their games.

“I really, really miss football,” Brady Holt said. “I really hope to play again in the future.”

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Brady has been able to do some football exercises as part of his therapy routine. And his personality has continued to shine through as he develops and grows more each day.

“His personality is back, his quirky sense of humor’s back,” Tracy Holt said. “We get frustrated with him … and then, if you look back a year ago and said, ‘A year from now, this is gonna be your frustrations with him.’ I mean, we would’ve given anything to know that.”

Soon after his accident, the Holt family started a Facebook page called “Brady Strong” to keep friends and family updated on his recovery. That page now has just under 3,000 followers.

Tracy Holt said despite the challenges, this has still been a blessing to his family. They are grateful for how far he’s made it and for the opportunity to see him relearn skills.

“There’s a lot of firsts that we’re seeing when we first saw when he was 2 years old,” Tracy Holt said. “We’re just happy that he’s here and progressing.”


Camilla Stimpson is a news writing intern for KSL.com and enjoys reporting on politics, crimes and her own awkward moments on 50shadesofawkward.com. When not writing, she can be found watching "30 Rock" or "Law & Order," napping, planning trips she can't afford and Googling dogs she can't have.

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