Ashton Hodge
Ashton Hodge, an 18-year-old from Christiansburg, Virginia, recalls going sledding with friends in the Jefferson National Forest in the late night hours of January 11. He has no memory of the accident that followed or what he and his family endured over the next ten days. Ashton’s parents were wary about the sledding adventure and his mom, Alysia, remembers telling him to be careful. She did not want to get a phone call that he had broken a bone, referring to a previous injury. Unfortunately, it turned out to be much scarier than that.
Around 11:30 p.m., Ashton and one of his friends were sledding together down a hill when their inner tube hit a mound and the two went airborne. His friend traveled one direction and landed with minor abrasions, and Ashton went the other direction, slamming the left side of his head into a tree. Seeing that Ashton was bleeding from his nose and ears, his friends knew the minutes that followed were critical to his survival.
Without cellular service in the remote area, one of the teens had some healthcare training and quickly grabbed a medical kit from his vehicle to assess Ashton. The friends then carried Ashton to the automobile and immediately started the twenty minute drive to LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, in Blacksburg. Once they had cell reception they called the emergency department to let them know they were on the way. Doctors would later tell the family that had the boys gone for help instead of bringing Ashton directly to the hospital, he likely would not have survived.
Once assessed in the emergency department, the doctors determined Ashton had a fractured skull at the temporal bone and a brain bleed. In and out of consciousness, he was rapidly transferred by ambulance to LewisGale Medical Center, in Salem, a Level II trauma center with a neurosurgery department. One of the boys had driven to alert Ashton’s parents, who immediately raced to Salem. Once there, they were told that Ashton was unresponsive, had been intubated to help open his airway, and was undergoing a second computed tomography, or CT scan, to determine the extent of his injuries.
When Ashton was stabilized, Alysia, who is a nurse, was permitted by the trauma team to see her son. From there, Ashton was transferred to the intensive care unit and Alysia was introduced to Joshua Prickett, DO, FCNS, FACOS, a board-certified and fellowship-trained neurosurgeon with LewisGale Physicians. The second CT scan revealed worsening of the brain bleed, so Dr. Prickett placed a temporary drain through Ashton’s skull to monitor and help relieve the intracranial pressure. Ashton was also sedated, placed in an induced coma, and put on a ventilator to help him breathe.
Ashton remained comatose for the next week. Ten days after his accident, he began following basic commands and was able to communicate with his family. The pressure monitor and breathing tube were removed. He spent an additional week in intensive care before being transferred to LewisGale Medical Center’s neurological rehabilitation unit, where he began intensive therapy to recover from his brain injury. On February 8, Ashton was able to come home and at his last follow up was continuing to recover and eager to return to work.
Ashton believes his survival “was all God” and says that he is “glad to be home,” hoping to get back to hunting, fishing, and spending time on the lake very soon. He continues outpatient neurological therapy, which focuses on improving his expressive aphasia, a speech difficulty that resulted from his brain injury. Since January, Ashton has suffered three bouts of pneumonia, but Alysia reports, “we see improvements in him every day and are so grateful for the care he received from Dr. Prickett and the entire LewisGale trauma and neurological team.”
To schedule a consultation with Joshua Prickett, DO, or the team at LewisGale Physicians Neurosurgery, call (540) 444-1240.