By By Lydia Grimes
Features Reporter
A Brewton native is relying on faith as her 14-year-old son begins his recovery from injuries sustained in a tubing accident last Sunday.
Davis Wallace, a former resident of Brewton, was seriously injured while he was tubing on the Flint River near his home in Bainbridge, Ga.
Davis, the son of Tina (Maddox) and Mike Wallace, and the grandson of Barbara and Jimmy Maddox of Brewton, is in Tallahassee Memorial Health Care, where he underwent surgery Wednesday.
Jake was injured with multiple bruises, a broken finger and a hairline fracture on his right hip. He is now recovering well.
Davis suffered multiple injuries and internal bleeding from his liver, that was placing pressure on his lungs and cracked ribs. The liver is healing itself, and chest tubes were put in to drain the internal bleeding, Tina Wallace said on the Caring Bridge site. The draining is decreasing, releasing the pressure on his lungs. His most severe injury is to his spinal cord in the T12-L1 area. His spinal cord was damaged, not severed, and is now misaligned, and therefore the ligaments and tendons that run through the spinal cord column are damaged, his mother wrote.
Barbara Maddox, Davis’ grandmother, said Wednesday morning that the doctors have not been optimistic about his recovery.
If doctors are not optimistic, Davis’ mother is.
Davis was scheduled for the first of two surgeries Thursday morning. Due to a emergency trauma at the hospital his first surgery had to be postponed. At about 3:30 p.m. he returned to the operating room for his surgery.
The surgery to stabilize the front portion of the spinal column was much more involved than expected. Due to the severity of the injury, Davis will not be allowed to be braced and sit up until after the second surgery, hopefully Tuesday-if not, Thursday. Davis’ internal injuries were also worse than thought, resulting in him being kept on the breathing tube following surgery.”
She also expressed a hope that the breathing tube will be removed on Saturday, as that is his birthday.
Friends who wish to follow Davis’s progress may do so at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/daviswallace.