SEATAC, Wash. — Eight months after doctors said Aidan Schellings might not walk or talk again, the 20-year-old walked off a plane at Sea-Tac Airport greeted by dozens of friends.
“I’m walking, smiling, and talking,” said Aidan, who suffered a traumatic brain injury when he crashed on his skateboard at Green Lake in Seattle in April.
He still struggles with speech and needs to be cared for. His family said Aidan’s recovery will likely take the rest of his lifetime, but they consider his progress a miracle.
“I thought he’d be coming home in a wheelchair,” said Aidan's mother Rebecca Schellings.
Aidan suffered a shattered skull and was in Harborview’s Intensive Care Unit for a month.
“They called him a vegetable,” said Aidan’s father, Steve Schellings.
The family decided to fly Aidan to specialty hospitals and clinics, first in Colorado and then in Nebraska.
He’s off to another rehabilitation facility in Florida next month, but the family wanted to have Aidan home for the holidays, surrounded by friends and family.
“Love is powerful medicine," said Steve. "It does heal."