‘I should’ve died.’
Support from rehab team helps man heal after head-on crash
The clock inched toward midnight as D.J. Richmond navigated rainy backroads in Wheatfield. It was March 2022 and Richmond was heading home from a friend’s house, a route flanked by soon-to-be-planted fields.
An oncoming driver swerved and hit him head on.
“It threw me around pretty bad,” Richmond recalled. “I should’ve died.”
Richmond, a 2021 graduate of Covenant Christian High School in DeMotte, sat alone in his vehicle, which had landed in a field just off that rural road. A friend came upon the scene a few minutes after the impact and called for help.
Richmond, a DeMotte resident at the time, was rushed to a Crown Point hospital and transferred to a Level 1 trauma center in Chicago. After a few weeks, he settled in at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center in Crown Point to focus on healing his hip, pelvis, tailbone, rib, back and more.
“They had to put a plate in my hip and screws and a long bolt to hold it in place,” he said. “I couldn’t use my left leg for three months. I was a hot mess.”
Richmond stayed about three and a half weeks at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center, a four-story multispecialty facility in Crown Point that offers inpatient rehabilitation treatment along with physician practices and outpatient services.
He worked hard each session to do better than he did the day before, said occupational therapist, Brittany Phillips.
“He sought motivation through family, friends and his faith to keep pushing through his therapies,” she said.
Richmond took recovery one step at a time with help from Phillips and other therapists. Therapy included standing, seeing how far he could walk and getting himself in and out of bed.
“In the rehab unit, they had me doing basic occupational therapy – stand on my right foot and organize these cards really quick, or sit and throw bean bags to get my core and arm working,” Richmond said.
He grew to know and appreciate his medical team.
“I can’t thank the entire team enough,” Richmond said. “They treated me as if I was their own family member and made me feel welcome and cared for the entire time. There was never a moment that I ever felt I was being a bother.”
After the crash, Richmond was bruised from his chest to his feet. A nurse working the midnight shift early in his recovery went out of her way to give him a sense of normalcy. She brought avocado toast and a mango drink from a chain eatery for Richmond and his mom, who was at his side.
“I had some sips and a couple bites of avocado toast, and it made me feel a little better,” he recalled.
After he was discharged as an inpatient at the rehabilitation center, Richmond returned for outpatient therapy. He bonded with his rehab team and did not want to seek therapy elsewhere. His mom drove him from college to therapy at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center about once a week.
Richmond, who is now 20 years old, lost the second semester of his freshman year of college at Olivet Nazarene University as a result of the crash.
“The crash happened two days into spring break,” he said. “I went back to school in fall of 2022. I was on crutches, managing school and trying to heal.”
Over time, Richmond graduated from a walker to crutches to a cane.
In March 2023, Richmond was back at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center for some lab work. He thought about visiting the nursing and therapy staff.
“I was debating whether I should because I didn’t want to bother anybody,” he said.
A staff member recognized him and encouraged him to visit the team because he was doing so well. He did. Soon, he was surrounded by staff, who congratulated him on his progress.
Jennifer Kulak, nurse manager of the Acute Rehab Unit at Community Stroke & Rehabilitation Center, said stories like Richmond’s are why healthcare workers do what they do.
“When he came to us, he was unable to walk,” she recalled. “Now, a year later, he was walking without any assistive devices, back to school, thriving. Our staff was so excited to see him and the progress that he has made.”
