MT. AIRY – A Habersham Central High School student athlete is home after being hospitalized since a Feb. 24 wreck on Ga. 17 Alternate (Talmadge Drive).
Hadden Carswell, a Habersham Central Raiders linebacker and baseball player, was discharged from Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta this week and returned home.
Friday night, the Habersham County community turned out for a surprise parade for Hadden at the Habersham Ninth Grade Academy in Mt. Airy. Some 150 vehicles, many displaying signs supporting Hadden, participated.
“Habersham County is amazing – everybody that has turned out, everybody that has supported us, who has prayed for us through this whole thing,” said Hadden’s mother, Nichole Carswell. “It’s just amazing to see the community response in support of him.”
One of those who participated in Friday night’s homecoming event for Hadden was Raiders Head Baseball Coach Chris Akridge.
“He’s always meant a great deal to me,” Akridge said. “I’ve had the privilege of coaching him in baseball and teaching him in the classroom and he’s just an outstanding man all the way around – a man of high character. I’ve said before that he’s the type of young man that I would want my own sons to grow up to be. I love him – always have. Now, at this point, he also is just a symbol of God’s miraculous healing in his life. That’s what I told him a minute ago. There’s a reason that he’s here. God’s got a plan for him. He’s literally a walking, talking miracle. There was a point in time where we didn’t know if that was going to be the case.”
Community support has remained constant
“The night the accident happened, it was unbelievable at the number of people actually at the emergency room and then we all got moved up to the second floor where the operating room was and the interesting thing was nobody left until the surgeons came out and said he’s stable,” Carswell said.
That support has remained despite the coronavirus pandemic.
“Even with the virus, it’s not stopped,” Carswell said. “Everybody has been reaching out and sending us messages and just letting us know that they’re praying for us and thinking about us, so that’s been absolutely amazing. We live in such a wonderful community.”
A police escort from the county line to his house was the first surprise for Hadden when he was discharged from Shepherd Spinal Center. Friday night’s parade was the other.
“He hasn’t stopped smiling since he realized what we were doing here,” Carswell said. “We didn’t tell him about tonight either. We actually kind of fooled him and told him that we were coming for his girlfriend who is a senior this year.”
Both those are important, Carswell said, because Hadden wasn’t aware of the initial outpouring of support from the community.
“We had such a big show of support early on,” Carswell said. “Well, he didn’t know about any of that, so it’s good for him to see the support that he actually has.”
The pandemic meant Hadden and his mother were isolated for most of his hospitalization.
“I cannot express how excited I am to have him home,” Carswell said. “Because of the virus, Shepherd’s policy was they shut down the hospital on April 6. Because he was a minor, one of us got to stay. We decided that I would stay, so his dad hadn’t even seen him until Wednesday of this week. I was locked in with him for about seven weeks.”
'Walking, talking miracle'
“We all gathered together the week the accident happened and prayed for God to work a miracle in his life and He has, so it’s just be awesome and celebrate his life tonight,” Akridge said.
Asked what Hadden’s wreck and subsequent recovery have done for the morale of the team, Akridge said, “We talk about being a brotherhood and being devoted and committed to one another. It’s easy to say those things but it’s a lot different when you’re put to the test of that, so I think it’s really shown that our kids and also their parents, we truly love one another and they truly love Hadden. It’s certainly brought us closer together, there’s no doubt about that.”
Carswell said while the recovery is not complete yet, the outlook for Hadden is good.
“Having him home in as good a condition as we’ve got him, I’m not sure we could have hoped for better for him,” Carswell said. “This is just amazing at the recovery that he’s had.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2020/5/905459/habersham-community-turns-out-to-welcome-wreck-victim-home