Rebuilding a Wrecked Body
by Daniel Townsend
Holder Bridgforth, a rising junior at Manchester Academy in Yazoo City, was driving his brother Turner down a slick road to a baseball game in late May of last year.
“The truck flipped five times,” Holder’s mother Missy recalls.
Both Holder and Turner were thrown out of the vehicle. Holder was
knocked unconscious, but Turner was able to call their father, who found
his son just five minutes later lying in scattered wheat stubble. The
wreck occurred on Highway 432 in Yazoo County.
Holder suffered a traumatic brain injury.
A medical expert said Holder’s brain was like a library full of books
that suddenly was hit by a tornado, recklessly scattering all the books.
If the number 0 is brain dead, and 15 is normal, Holder was at 3.“It looked bleak,” Holder’s father recalls.
Missy wasn’t sure her son would come out of the coma.
Today, Holder and his family travel from their Pickens home 40 miles
each way to Ridgeland twice a week to work out at Velocity Sports.
Holder’s recovery is “somewhat miraculous,” his parents say.
Holder was unable to sit up or feed himself, and for a long time could
only walk slowly with assistance. Now, with the help of exercise
physiologists at Velocity, he is back to sprinting. “The environment
here is amazing,” says Missy of the Velocity center.
He can’t play football anymore, so he devotes himself to track and
tennis. He realized the left side of his body was weaker. “This is why
we came to Velocity for core and agility training,” Barry says.
Velocity evaluated him and got to work on core strengthening. “I came
here because I didn’t want to be looked at as different,” he said. “I
didn’t want to be made fun of.”
Still, his old football buddies have been a great support. “Everybody’s
been supportive of him for his complete recovery,” says his mom.
Barry and Missy run the Crescent City Classic 10K in New Orleans yearly,
and Holder began participating with them three years ago.
Holder was recognized this year as a Scholar Athlete at Manchester’s
Awards Day, an honor given to two-sport athletes maintaining an average
of 90 or above.
“This has been a journey,” Missy said. “… We’re much more appreciative
of how precious
life is. You’re appreciative
of every step.” SS
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