HOLLAND, Texas — It was Wednesday, Sept. 11 when Ryan Pritchard was riding his scooter with friends in Holland when he fell off and had an extremely hard fall.
"They were only half a mile from the school," Ryan's father, Brett Pritchard, explained.
For Ryan and the Pritchard family, that fall altered their lives forever.
"When he fell off the scooter, he hit just right on his head and he ended up having a skull fracture and perforated an artery in his skull," Brett Pritchard shared. "So he had an epidural hematoma."
Ryan's friends immediately called 911 after he fell and he was life flighted from Holland to the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple. His parents say doctors had to operate on him before they arrived or things would have taken a dark turn.
"He was in a coma for several days," Cindy Pritchard, Ryan's mother, added. "He had to have brain surgery to relieve pressure."
Once his surgery was over, Brett says Ryan bounced back extremely quickly.
"The doctors at Scott and White were fabulous," Brett Pritchard added. "They said 'I can't believe that he's going home, but he's gonna recover better at home than he is here and he's got nothing that's keeping him here.'"
To celebrate Ryan's return home and his 14th birthday, the Pritchard's daughter came up with the idea to take things back to the days when COVID-19 first hit the States.
"We think, well, you can't have friends over for his birthday party and everybody in the community wants to come visit. So my daughter said, 'Well, why don't we do a COVID birthday party like they did during COVID?'"
Over 50 of Ryan's friends and people in the community attended the drive-thru birthday and return home celebration. Many people even brought gifts and cards to send Ryan their well wishes.
"We are so grateful for Holland and the community out here," Brett Pritchard said. "We've only lived here eight months, but the way people have just rallied around us has been incredible."
Ryan is getting a lot of rest right now and won't be back to school for another few weeks during his recovery.