Car crash footballer: 'My playing days aren't over'
- Published
Ethan Walker - in the middle on crutches - made it home to Scotland to a warm welcome
A teenage Scottish footballer badly injured after being hit by a car while studying in the USA has spoken of his "miracle" recovery.
Ethan Walker, 18, was walking back to Genesee Community College in New York in September when it happened.
The former Huntly FC player, from Auchnagatt in Aberdeenshire, suffered bleeding in the brain and multiple broken bones.
He is now home and said: "My playing days aren't over yet, thankfully."
Family and friends managed to raise more than $50,000 (£40,000) towards the cost of his treatment.
He spent several weeks in hospital before he was able to fly home.
However, Ethan will require more surgery.
"The doctors are very surprised at how well I'm doing," he told BBC Scotland News.
"Reading my notes, they just think it's a miracle how well I'm doing.
"It's great being home, I can see my friends again. Some of my mates have been to see me. Thankfully I'm getting the feeding tube out hopefully in a couple of weeks, once my swallow is better, so that's good."
Ethan Walker had played with Huntly FC
Ethan has very little memory of what happened in the crash or his early time in hospital.
"I remember about the last two-and-a-half weeks of being at the hospital. I remember the day before my surgery and I remember the day of my surgery when I got my knee operated on. I remember the day after as well, I had a very bad reaction to the anaesthetic and the painkillers."
On the fundraiser, he added: "It's amazing knowing people donated to you, were so kind to me, and gave me the support I need.
"I just want to say thank you to everyone who gave money to the fundraising page to support me.
"I am looking forward to the future, to healing and getting back to the gym and football again."
It has been an anxious time for his mother Jaclyn Walker, who flew from Scotland to be by his side in hospital, before her husband and daughter could get there.
Recalling when she first heard what happened, she said: "It is all a bit of a blur. I got an email. When I read it I thought that can't be right it must be spam or someone playing a joke. I just didn't take it in.
"But I phoned the number on the email, and I spoke to the sheriff over in Buffalo, and he told me what had happened and from that moment on it was just a blur. I just tried to get a flight as quick as I could."
Jaclyn Walker said she was humbled by the support for her son
She explained: "It took a while to find out the severity of what actually had happened.
"I spoke to one doctor and he kind of told me about the brain bleed and about how he was just unconscious, ventilated, and they weren't sure if there was brain activity. I didn't find out the extent of all his other injuries until I got there.
"I just saw him and wanted to sit down and hold him and talk to him. I'd sprayed myself with loads of perfume, which is so stupid, when I got off the plane just so he could smell me, even if nothing else he would know that that was my perfume.
"I can't even think what I thought other than I just need to be there to tell him to keep fighting."
'I am very lucky'
She said progress was slow and they took it day by day.
"The doctors over there, the trauma team that had him for first 11 days, they kept checking on him. Every time someone that treated him saw him in the hospital, they were just like 'you're a miracle, we can't actually believe he's the same boy that was down in the trauma unit with everything going on'.
"And then when we got home we had the same reaction from all the doctors in Aberdeen that he's seen in person. They have all read his notes, and then when he appears in front of them they are just like 'Wow. You are not what we were expecting to be walking in the door'.
"I couldn't be prouder, his attitude, everything about him. I don't have words. Just super proud."
She described the support - both financial and emotional - as "humbling".
Despite the trauma he's been through Ethan is very positive about the future.
"I'm quite excited about it all. As soon as my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) gets done in surgery it's a long road of recovery, but I'm quite excited for doing that, and to be able to do everything in the gym again.
"I am very lucky to be here, I don't remember much but from what everyone says I am very lucky. And I am so lucky to have a mum like mine."
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- Published22 September 2023
