Senior an inspiration to teammates

White County Central senior Tylan Gee was in a car accident May 7, the night before Mother’s Day. After spending nearly a month in the hospital recovering, Gee has returned to playing basketball for the Bears.
White County Central senior Tylan Gee was in a car accident May 7, the night before Mother’s Day. After spending nearly a month in the hospital recovering, Gee has returned to playing basketball for the Bears.

— Tylan Gee should not be alive.

“There was a rock in the ditch about 6 inches from his head,” White County Central boys basketball coach Ryan Koerdt said. “It was raining, so the ground was just soft enough that when the truck landed on him, the ground gave.

“Otherwise there is no way. If it was the middle of the summer, we would be having a completely different conversation.”

Gee, a senior at White County Central High School, said he crashed his truck after running a stop sign in the middle of the night on May 7, the night before Mother’s Day. His truck’s front end was hit by another driver, causing Gee’s 2005 GMC Sierra to flip and land in a ditch.

“I was driving down the road with buddies, and I wasn’t paying attention, just all talking and having a good time,” Gee said. “I ran a stop sign, and the next thing I know, my buddy is yelling at me, saying somebody is coming.

“I did all I could to dodge it, but I hear a loud noise, and the next thing I know, I’m waking up in the hospital.”

Gee said he wasn’t wearing a seat belt, so “I flew halfway out the window, and the truck landed on me.”

Gee spent nearly a month recovering at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.

“The first person I saw was my dad, and then Coach Ryan asking if I was ready to play basketball,” Gee said.

Koerdt was visiting his parents in Scranton when he got the call.

“It was about midnight when I was getting calls from another player,” Koerdt said. “So I head down there frantically, because all I knew was a truck had landed on Ty.”

Leyton Lindsey, who was riding in the truck with Gee and made the call to Koerdt, had a broken hand, and another passenger was able to walk away from the wreck unscathed.

“Leyton was pretty frantic and upset,” Koerdt said. “Naturally, we were all the same way.”

Gee suffered multiple skull fractures and is deaf in his right ear. The right side of his vocal cords is paralyzed.

“The spot on the window from your blind spot to your door, there is a perfect indention of his head from where it landed,” Koerdt said.

Koerdt said Gee’s friends and others didn’t even wait for first responders to arrive, using an electrical pole to push the truck off of him to get him out.

“They leaned against the pole and used their feet to lift the truck,” Gee said.

“They were just going to do some night fishing,” Koerdt said. “They weren’t drinking; they weren’t doing drugs.

“They were just going to be kids, to be boys. They went down a back road that probably has one vehicle there maybe every 30 minutes to an hour, maybe not even that.”

On May 26, the doctors placed a feeding tube in Gee’s stomach and believed it would be several months before he would be able to eat or drink by mouth. In less than a month, he had already lost 25 pounds.

“He lost a lot of strength,” Koerdt said. “He is power cleaning 115 when he was at 190.”

Many believed it would be closer to Christmas before Gee would be able to return to basketball, if at all. But Gee was fit to play at the start of the season, although his play is severely limited.

“I started him the first couple of games,” Koerdt said. “He used to be the fastest kid on the court, but right now, his quick-twitch muscles haven’t responded. …

“I wish I could put his mind inside my younger guys, because right now, I’m starting three sophomores and relying on about five to play.”

White County Central is now 6-3 in the season after beating Midland 55-40 on Nov. 21. Gee hasn’t played more than five minutes in one game, Koerdt said.

“It is real slow right now,” Koerdt said. “He was due for a good year after starting every game last year. He was due to step up and take on a bigger role.

“But from a physical standpoint, and we knew this, he is just not there right now.”

“It is a little frustrating,” Gee said, “knowing where you were, and now you’ve got to restart.”

“It is a lot frustrating,” Koerdt said. “Be honest with the man.

“It is a lot frustrating for everybody involved. I’d almost love to have a redshirt for high school.”

Gee played the Scottie Pippen role for the Bears, averaging just eight or nine points a game but padding the stat sheet with steals, rebounds and assists.

“He was not one to score 25 points a game; he was all over the stat sheet,” Koerdt said. “He was also a great free-throw shooter.

“He’s the kid I wanted at the free-throw line.”

Gee’s mother died five years ago, but he said his stepmom, Tina Gee, is “just like my real mom. She does everything for me. She does everything for me.

“She was real worried about me, just like my dad. She was not getting the answers she needed.”

Tina is a home economics teacher at Newport High School.

“It scared me to death,” she said. “We got to the Searcy hospital as fast as possible, only to learn he had been med-flighted to Little Rock.”

Tina said she had no idea which hospital he went to.

“They told us it was either UAMS or Children’s,” Tina said. “We went to UAMS first, but he wasn’t there.

“It is the longest drive of anybody’s life when something like that happens.”

Tina said Tylan was still in the emergency room when they got to Children’s Hospital, and he was covered in dirt, mud and blood.

“You think the worst,” Tina said. “We knew the vehicle was on fire; we were imagining him being hurt and burned.

“But it was a real small fire, and it never got to him or any of the other boys.”

Tina said she kept thinking to herself, “If he had just had his seat belt on.”

“Normally, he always wears it,” Tina said. “Days later, he even tried arguing with me about it, but I said, ‘No sweetie. If you had, your head would not have gone through the window and been crushed by the truck.”

Tina said it was an absolute nightmare.

“The worst things possible go through your head while you are driving to the hospital,” Tina said.

Tylan will go back to the hospital Dec. 6 for more tests.

“I can eat just about anything right now,” he said. “I just always have to have something to drink with me.”

During his physical therapy and recovery, Tylan routinely worked with a basketball, dribbling up and down the hallways, passing and tossing to others and playing catch.

“He eventually went onto the roof and shot around,” Tina said. “He has determination, and he has heart, and he tries.

“Watching him on the court now, it is just heartbreaking when you think about what he used to be.

“But we are just thankful he is alive. We are just thankful that he is even with us here today.”

Koerdt said despite his limitations on the court, Tylan, who has been playing basketball on a team since he was in the first grade, has been a leader and an example for the underclassmen.

“I’ve never had a kid that played as hard as he does for this long,” Koerdt said. “From the word go, he has no quit in him.

“That’s been an inspiration to these younger kids. If he’s out here, what’s your excuse?”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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