by Christian Toews

Braiden Williams is no stranger to adversity. One November evening, while driving home from work, Williams lost control of his truck and crashed. His vehicle flipped multiple times. Despite wearing his seatbelt, he was thrown from his vehicle. Braiden was only 17 years old at the time. He said, “I remember flipping once and then I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up.” 

   It took around 45 minutes for someone to notice the accident because his vehicle landed upright, according to Braiden’s mother, Michelle Williams. Braiden said he lay in the field and assumed he would have to stay there all night. 

   It was a semi driver who noticed something wasn’t normal about where his truck was parked and called emergency services. Braiden said that he never got the name of that truck driver, but he is forever grateful that he stopped. As he was lying in the field, he noticed that his legs wouldn’t move. “I knew [I was paralyzed] when I was laying the field. I tried to get up and my legs wouldn’t work,” said Braiden. He was transported by ambulance across the highway to a helicopter waiting to fly him to Medical City of Plano.

   After an initial assessment the doctors told Braiden’s mother that he had contusions on both lungs, a broken sternum, five broken ribs, a broken left thumb and one broken tooth. The most severe injury, however, was to his spinal cord. He fractured his spine in two places. 

   One of the spinal injuries was a burst fracture. 

   The doctors told Michelle that 80% of people with a burst fracture are paralyzed for life. Michelle remembers the hospital staff saying that the best spinal doctor in the area was on call at the time. She felt a level of comfort from knowing Braiden was in good hands. Six hours after surgery, Braiden was able to move both legs. Michelle said it was nothing short of a miracle. 

   Although Braiden’s surgeries were a success, it took some time for him to recover. He was originally told by the doctors that he would need inpatient physical therapy for six months to a year. After they saw how quickly he was progressing, though, he was able to do outpatient physical therapy instead.

   Braiden and his family are Choctaw tribal members and he was able to begin physical therapy at Choctaw Regional Medical Clinic in Durant, Oklahoma. Braiden said that his physical therapy went so well that he was able to leave the program early. “I went five days a week for three months, and then I cut back, and then I just stopped going,” he said. 

   “I was flying through it and it got to the point where it just wasn’t helping anymore because I was doing so well,” He said. “The accident happened in November and I was roping at a rodeo in March,” He continued. “I’ve been called a miracle for two years, and I still don’t know how to take it.”  

   Michelle shared how much the Choctaw Nation’s support meant to her family. “What the Choctaw Nation did for us is allow him to have physical therapy, number one, and then to allow him to have that type of aggressive schedule with physical therapy. Even if I’d had insurance, I wouldn’t have been able to afford a copay for five days a week for four months. I mean no one can afford that. But thank God that we are Choctaw and that they have that benefit for us,” she said. 

   Braiden didn’t allow this adversity to hold him back. During his recovery, Braiden discovered his love for music. “A friend of mine gave me a guitar. I had watched everything there was to watch on Netflix, so I decided I’m just going to watch Youtube and learn how to play it,” He said. He couldn’t walk very well during his recovery process and he couldn’t put the guitar down very far away. This made it easy to spend a lot of time practicing after physical therapy every day, he remembered.

   He posted a video of him playing and singing on Instagram which got a lot of views, and he liked it. After sharing his talent online, he began playing at several different venues in southern Oklahoma and North Texas. He placed third in the music competition at the Sandbass Festival in Madill, Oklahoma this year. “Playing on stage, there is just no other feeling like that,” he said.

   Braiden hopes he can turn his passion for music into a career. “I hope I can be a musician, go on tour, make music, record albums.”  

   His mother says the accident was difficult, but it helped to bring about this newfound talent. “My mother was a singer, I’m a singer; both of us piddled with it when we were young, but Braiden never showed interest in that until now,” she said. “Without this accident we may have never known that he even had this talent inside him.”

   You can find out more information about where Braiden will be performing next and follow his music journey by following Braiden Williams Music on Facebook and Instagram.