Landen Hines (20) of Fordsville, KY is a young man who knows a thing or two about trucks; he previously worked at Mattingly’s Tire & Towing in Fordsville, KY. “We do oil changes, changing tires, lifting trucks, putting tires on…anything you can think of. We’re full-service and do customization. I love F-150s, they’re the most common and easiest to work on.”
When he isn’t working, Landen enjoys going to Blue Holler OffRoad Park with his friends. “I take my dirtbike back there, or ride Razors; I love hanging out with my friends on the weekends. [Jokingly] My life revolves around tires, dirtbikes, and Razors.”
On the evening of November 18, 2023 after 11:00 p.m., Landen was on his way home from a friend’s house in Fordsville. “I don’t remember what happened. I woke up in the hospital weeks later, and my mom told me I had my gallbladder removed…I realized then it was a little more than that.”
Landen remembers everything about his day right up to minutes before the wreck happened. The following is from Landen’s mother Beverly Hines’ perspective:
“I was asleep when I heard the police knocking at my door around 1:00 a.m. They told me Landen had been life flighted into UofL Hospital. They said he was unresponsive, but after shining a light in his pupils they dilated. They handed me his clothes that they cut off of him, and I prayed for dear life the whole drive up there. He was there when I got there, still awake but they were taking him down for surgery number two. They were trying to find where he was still bleeding from because his vitals were so low; his temperature was 90, and his blood pressure was 56/34…I don’t even know. Everything was just gravely ill. They couldn’t even get a CT scan to see what else was wrong besides his liver and kidney. He had four surgeries that night to get the bleeding to stop, and get him stable, and give him blood. He had to have over 100 units of blood over the time he was in there. Dr. Franklin told me that in the 25 years he’d been there, no one survived needing that amount of blood. If it wasn’t for his age, and him being healthy and strong, he likely wouldn’t have survived.”
Landen’s 2005 F-150 had flipped over, and evidence suggests he tried swerving to avoid something. His truck flipped four or five times off the road and settled on the cab of the truck. A Fordsville fire department member noticed the cab light while driving home, and recognized Landen. The firefighter who found him called in a helicopter immediately and they escorted Landen to UofL Health. The hospital team didn’t think Landen would survive the flight to the hospital. Landen’s injuries included a concussion, a fractured C1, three broken ribs, and damage to his liver and kidneys.
Landen was at UofL Hospital in a medically induced coma for about three weeks. “For the first week I remember glimpses of each day, and being awake more and more, but I was never really conscious. I was just sleeping most of the time and I’d be up for a few hours, in and out.”
Landen was woken up in mid-December, 2023. “I remember my friends Willis, Andrew, Nathan, and Shae coming in and out. But seeing them was how I was certain that something wasn’t right. Seeing them there was really good, and having friends like that is really good though.”
Beverly remembers, “I was thanking God that all our prayers were answered. I had initially put everything on Facebook to get people to pray, and it took off from there. I gave it to God, and thanked God that Landen made it through, because a miracle was not promised at all.”
“The doctors didn’t tell me too much about my injuries, only what had happened and that I’d be in UofL for a while,” Landen noted. Beverly recalls that, “He was on dialysis at that time because his kidneys weren’t functioning. They didn’t know for sure if the kidneys would come back to life or not, but because he was young we got lucky.”
Processing the injury was interesting for Landen. “There wasn’t much pain, which is unreal. Nothing too major. It just kind of clicked…well this is my life now, I guess. I processed it pretty quickly. If I sit here I’ll think about it sometimes, but I don’t think about it much because I don’t want to. I’ll see how [messed] up my stomach is and…that’s just how it is now. I had an open stomach wound for a while. I had a wound vac when I came home, and then had some trouble with a few skin grafts, but it’s healing more now.”
Beverly recalled how scary the situation was, and kept a journal of the daily progress Landen made. “‘November 30th, Landen opened his eyes and squeezed my hand.’ That was the first time they tried weaning him off his sedation medication, because he was on four different suppressors.”
Landen was discharged from UofL Hospital and administered into Frazier Rehabilitation Institute shortly after December 20, 2023. “Frazier was kind of tough. They made you get up and move around every day, but I got COVID while I was in there, so I had to walk around in circles in my room. It was a lot of long days, but I was glad when I could eat. I could eat for a week, and then I could go home. When I woke up I couldn’t drink water or anything because of the trach, and then I could only chew ice. It was horrible. Physically you’re fine, but your mind is telling you that you need to drink and eat, but you can’t drink or eat. It’s just something else.”
For Landen, being in Frazier, “Felt like you were in school again, like you had classes. It’d be something like pedaling your legs in a wheelchair, then getting up and moving around. I worked with a speech pathologist a lot too, plus a specialist for your mind to make sure you were cognitively okay. I couldn’t talk for a little while, which was really aggravating. I’d try speaking but nobody could understand me. I also couldn’t write very well on the board they gave me at first. It was frustrating. But the best part was eating a meal again. I think we DoorDashed some food, maybe Beef ‘O’ Brady’s or something.”
Landen left Frazier Rehabilitation Institute on January 3, 2024, after spending Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s in the hospital.
Landen was very grateful for the support he received from his community. “The way back it was so nice to see trees and land again. Things were different, different smells, different sounds…there’s no noise in the hospital except for helicopters.”
“I was so relaxed just being at the house, because while you’re in treatment they wake you up all through the night for shots, medicine, everything else. I slept a lot once I got back. I felt like I didn’t have much strength for a while, especially with that tube in me; if it tugged on something or tripped on something, it would hurt horribly.”
Beverly remembers Landed coming home. “It was very challenging figuring out how to take care of him, and get him the help he needs. New routines, and even getting back to work. I was with him for all 45 days. We had to learn everything, especially caring for his wound vac.”
“From the time of the accident to the time we left, I was thanking God that Landen survived with only the injuries he had. It could have been way different. Especially while we were in Frazier, I saw some people that would never walk or talk again. I was grateful that I wasn’t having to grieve over my son dying in a car accident…one of his best friends lost his life just four days before Christmas, Colton Coomes, and we had spoken to him December 19th. Then we were talking about old times, and Colt Rickard [another friend] who plays music was going to do a benefit for Landen…and he literally got killed in a car accident. We went through a lot of things in that hospital, and life doesn’t stop just because you’re away. I’m glad for the support system that he had.”
Landen mostly just wants to move beyond the event that happened in late Fall 2023. “It’s how life is. Some days it’s going to rain, some days it’s a tornado. There’s no point in getting down, because you’re always up anyway. I don’t want it to drag me down. I always get up and try to do something.”
Landen will eventually return to work once his strength and weight return. “I’m starting to feel much better and more normal, like I was. Every day it gets a little better. I just want to live like I did. I don’t want anything to be different. I’m thankful for my work, my friends, and my mom. She was always there through all of it. I couldn’t ask for a better sister, or a better mom or better friends.”
Beverly remains grateful for the nurses on the UofL Health team. “You couldn’t ask for any better than that. He was getting great care and the camaraderie they had with us, going above and beyond…it was like watching your favorite show or reading your favorite book, what’s going to unfold next? 
You don’t know. I could text them any questions, any day or any time. One of them was with us on the day he got out…I really appreciated that, it made everything so much better. It’s a mom thing, you just don’t understand how much you want for your child, and they were all of that for us.”
Beverly also notes, “We’re thankful for everyone and all they did. All the prayers, putting flowers on my mom’s grave, people took care of our refrigerator when it went out, they cooked us meals, looking out for Landen’s sister while she was here alone. They held my job, they held Landen’s job…everyone came together and it made a world of difference. They took care of our animals, they took care of our bills…they just covered us.”
Landen Hines.
A man of his community.
Trauma Survivor.
