Around 8 a.m. on Nov. 3, Angie Denton picked up the phone and received the news every parent fears the most.

Her 20-year-old son, Gavin Brown, was involved in a serious car accident on his way to work.

“I asked if he was going to be OK or what the extent of the injuries were. … The answer I got at that time,” Denton said before taking a breath, “was that they were not sure of the extent of his injuries yet, but that I needed to get there as soon as possible. … I was terrified.”

Brown graduated from Brown County High School in 2016. On Friday night, Dec. 14, a chili supper will take place before the boys and girls basketball games to support his recovery. A GoFundMe page also has been created, and the high school’s wrestling team is selling “Gavin Strong” bracelets. Gavin used to be a member of the wrestling and golf teams.

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Brown had been on his way to work on State Road 252 near Hoosier Harvest Church when a deer jumped across the road and into his windshield. The deer was found dead on the floorboard of the back seat, Denton said. “It was dark and foggy that morning, so they believe that he didn’t even see it coming, but that it tried to jump across the road and came in through the windshield,” she said.

Brown was taken to the hospital in Martinsville before being flown to Methodist.

He suffered a traumatic brain injury and broke his jaw in three places. Doctors say he may not be able to walk or talk again.

“Nothing below his jaw was injured at all,” Denton said.

A nurse met the parents in the emergency room to prepare them before they saw Brown. “He had a big opening above his left eye, his right eye was black, swollen shut. He had an opening on the left side of his cheek, I believe it went all the way through. He eventually ended up with stitches there and above his eye,” Denton said.

A month after the crash, Denton said that besides his brain injury, Brown is doing well. He is breathing on his now without a trach, something his neurologist said he may not be able to do.

His jaw is wired shut and he was due to have surgery last week to have the wires removed. He is able to move both of his arms and has been trying to move his legs, but he was not following commands or tracking movement with his eyes yet, Denton said on Dec. 3.

The right side of his skull was removed the day of the crash to help relieve pressure on his brain. “Some patients go two months before it’s put back. His swelling is actually down a lot, so he may be closer to the six-week mark of getting that put back in,” Denton said.

He was in the intensive care unit at Methodist for 11 days before being transferred out of the ICU. On Nov. 16, he was transferred to St. Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital where he stayed for two weeks, then was then transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in Indianapolis on Nov. 30.

“The first two weeks I just stayed at the hospital all the time. I didn’t go home,” Denton said.

As Brown started to become more stable, Denton began coming home in the evenings to spend time with her other two children who live at home. Bryce is a student at the high school and Aubree is a student at Brown County Intermediate School. The couple also has a 23-year-old daughter, Alyssa.

Bryce is on the high school wrestling team. Aubree plays on a travel volleyball team and on the basketball team at the intermediate school. “I’ve been trying to make all of her basketball games and my son’s wrestling meets,” Denton said.

Denton said people have been bringing dinners to their house. “The community has really been amazing,” she said.

Coming together

Julie Phelps’ son is best friends with Brown’s younger brother, Bryce. She is one of the parents helping to organize the chili supper fundraiser on Dec. 14.

“It’s really hit our family, not as hard as theirs of course, but it’s a trying time for them all right now, and we’re just wanting to help the family out however we can,” Phelps said.

Both of Phelps’ sons play football. She and other football moms often feed the team.

“I wanted to find a way to help the family because their costs will be crazy. I was like, ‘We feed 60 football players every Thursday night with just no problem,’ so I got together with some of the football moms and said, ‘Hey, do you think we can pull this off?’” she said.

Parents from throughout the school district are volunteering to help. “Then of course everybody is like, ‘What do you want me to bring? What can I help with?’” she said.

On Dec. 14, the varsity boys and girls basketball teams will be facing off against Cloverdale High School. The girls play at 6 p.m. and the boys play at 7:30 p.m. The chili supper will begin at 5:15 p.m. in the common area of the gym.

“They are people you meet and you know you like them right away. They care about their kids and they worry about them just like the rest of us do,” Phelps said about the Dentons.

“As a mom, you just can’t imagine the struggle that they are going through right now. You have a perfectly healthy kid and he gets up to go to work one day and you get that horrible phone call that he is in the hospital. They are just a great family.

“If I was in that situation, I would hope the community would come together like they do every other time.”

‘The funny one’

Brown was working in bridge construction at the time of the crash.

“He’s always trying to make people laugh. That was his main thing. He always wanted to be the funny one and lighten the mood,” Denton said of her son. “That’s what they said he did at work. When they came up to see him, they said that they missed him because he always kind of made work fun.”

Denton said she and her husband, Rick, recently bought a house that required some work. “He (Brown) would go to work and do construction all day, then he would come home and help us. He made it fun and would goof off, make us laugh,” she said.

Denton said her son is also “very dedicated” to whatever he was doing.

When he was a senior in high school, the boys golf team advanced past sectionals for the first time since 1980. He played golf all four years.

“He was at the golf course every day until they closed, pretty much. It would be after school until it was time to come home at the end of the day. It was usually 8 or 9 p.m. when I would pick him up at the golf course,” Denton said.

“I would say, ‘Don’t you want to go out with friends or do something?’ He would say, ‘No, I’ve got to get ready for sectionals.’”

Brown played football in the Bantam League, in junior high and in high school, until his freshman year when he broke his knee. He wrestled from fourth grade until his sophomore year when he had to have shoulder surgery. He took that year off before wrestling again his junior year, Denton said.

After graduation, he began working construction, and a couple of his co-workers would go to the gym to work out. “He got a passion for that, so then he started going to the gym every day,” she said.

“His initial goal then was to actually compete in physical fitness competitions. That’s what he was working towards at the time (of the crash).”

Denton said the neurologist who did Brown’s MRI told her he will be a quadriplegic and will not be able to talk. The doctor said he would need a feeding tube for the rest of his life. That doctor also said he would need a trach to breathe for the rest of his life, but that was going to be removed after his jaw surgery last week.

“As far as other doctors, they say only time will tell, because he’s young. I’m trying not to let that get me down. We’ve been praying,” Denton said.

“So many people have been contacting me from all over the United States who are praying for him.”

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Gavin Brown was involved in a serious car crash on Nov. 3, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. He is in a rehabilitation hospital in Indianapolis.

Brown County Schools parents are organizing a fundraiser chili supper to help his family on Friday, Dec. 14 at 5:15 p.m. in the common area of the Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium before the start of the girls varsity and boys varsity basketball games.

The Brown County High School girls varsity team takes to to the court 6 p.m. with the boys playing at 7:30 p.m.

Money raised will be used to help Brown and his family.

A GoFundMe page has also been set up, titled “Stand by Gavin.” It had raised $2,560 of its $10,000 goal as of Dec. 4.

The high school wrestling team is also selling #GavinStrong bracelets for $2 as a fundraiser for the family. To buy one, contact wrestling coach Josh Sparks at [email protected].

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