Trevor’s miracle: Injured Tarpon now out of the hospital

Michael Thibodaux
October 6, 2015
Telling time where to go, what to do
October 6, 2015
Michael Thibodaux
October 6, 2015
Telling time where to go, what to do
October 6, 2015

Larose native Tessie Toups thinks her son Trevor is the recipient of a miracle – a young man who is being powered by the prayers of thousands of people in the South Lafourche community and beyond.

When one takes note of what happened in the young man’s life in the past week, it’s awfully hard to disagree.

By now, it’s well-known that Trevor was severely injured at South Lafourche football practice last Tuesday after taking a shot to the head – a blow that caused his brain to swell and bleed. He was rushed from practice to Lady of the Sea General Hospital where doctors diagnosed his severe injury. Trevor was then airlifted to University Hospital in New Orleans and taken into immediate brain surgery, which left him in critical condition in intensive care.


Doctors induced a coma on Trevor to rest his body and help swelling go down in his brain. They estimated that the South Lafourche freshman football player could be in that coma for two weeks, if not more. His hospital stay could have lasted for months, they said.

Their estimates were wrong.

Just 24 hours after surgery, Trevor was opening his eyes and responding to signals from doctors. Two days later, he was out of intensive care and transferred to Children’s Hospital. Once there, doctors were so astonished at his recovery that they let him out of the hospital altogether on Friday night. At press-time, he was at home with his family – walking (with assistance from family), talking and text messaging his friends and family.


Sure, there’s still a long road yet to go, and a lot of rehab needs to be done. But the entire Toups family and the South Lafourche High School community are in awe at how the injured young man has healed – something that Tessie Toups thinks is 100 percent because of the prayers, phone calls, text messages and shows of love and support that Trevor received throughout the community and state while he was in the hospital.

“It’s all a miracle from God,” Tessie said. “That’s all I can say. Even his doctors and nurses were in awe. They came in the room Friday, and they all shook their heads in disbelief. The only words that could come out of their mouths were ‘it’s amazing,’ or ‘this is incredible.’”

PROMPT RESPONSE, QUALITY ASSISTANCE HELP RECOVERY


“It all happened so fast,” South Lafourche head football coach Dennis Skains said on Saturday morning. “Life can change in the blink of an eye sometimes.”

Trevor is a defensive back and wide receiver for the Tarpons freshman football team. On Tuesday’s warm, sunny day, the Tarpons were busy on the practice fields preparing for South Terrebonne – the opponent they were scheduled to face just 24 hours later.

On a routine practice play, Trevor took an accidental blow to the head and went down. He was unresponsive and not moving.


South Lafourche freshman football coach Brian Callais immediately stopped practice and team trainer Lauren Griffin hustled to get Trevor immediate assistance. Within a few minutes, an ambulance was called. A few minutes after that, Trevor was on his way to Lady of the Sea’s emergency room.

The process had started in short order.

In the hospital emergency room, the urgency of Trevor’s situation rushed him to immediate care where he was diagnosed and immediately airlifted to University for immediate surgery.


Trevor’s father Toby Toups said in a lengthy Facebook post that he wanted to thank the South Lafourche coaches and trainer, Trevor’s ambulance driver, Lady of the Sea Emergency Room personnel and University Hospital for their immediate response. Without it, the father doesn’t think Trevor would have been in a position to heal as quickly as he has.

Skains also applauded the swift work of his staff, which he said stayed calm and worked briskly in a crisis situation.

“You never think this will happen in your program,” Skains said. “Everything starts moving so fast, and it’s a really difficult situation, but our trainer did a great job in immediately recognizing there was a problem and getting us help.”


PRAYER REVOLUTION SURROUNDS TREVOR

The Times was the only media outlet to report the news of Trevor’s injury on Tuesday afternoon.

As the story made its way onto social media, an avalanche of support for Trevor was started, and an army of prayers were offered.


Tessie said she has received “thousands” of Facebook messages, text messages and phone calls from people who wanted to offer their support to Trevor.

South Lafourche High School let students wear blue on Wednesday to honor his healing and recovery. It also held voluntary faculty and student prayer sessions for the student.

Lafourche school buses wrapped blue ribbons on the bottoms of their rear-view mirrors to show their support, and several local businesses used their exterior signage to offer the young man prayers, words of encouragement and support.


“We are so thankful to everyone who has reached out to us to assist us in some sort of way – even if it was to say that they were praying for he and our family,” Tessie said. “Toby, our daughter Taylor and myself cannot express our gratitude enough.”

The football fraternity united, as well. Before South Lafourche’s freshman football game at South Terrebonne on Thursday – a game postponed 24 hours because of the injury – Gators officials held a moment of silence for Trevor. The entire Gators roster also walked to midfield to pray with the South Lafourche team.

After the game, which the Tarpons won by two touchdowns, the team took a photo to send to Trevor, who was still in the hospital at the time. Also in the photo was Trevor’s sister Taylor, who attended the game and wore his blue No. 23 jersey. The Tarpons captains carried the empty white No. 23 jersey – the same uniform Trevor would have been wearing on the field – with them for the coin toss. After the win, players also signed the game ball for their classmate. Callais and assistant coaches Damien St. Pierre and Keagan Polkey presented it to him at the hospital on Friday morning.


“That meant so much to him,” Tessie said.

Throughout Friday night’s varsity games, moments of silence were held around Louisiana to honor Trevor’s recovery. At the Tarpons varsity game versus Plaquemine, the Green Devils presented South Lafourche with a giant green banner that said “PRAYING FOR TREVOR”. The Green Devils players also sent the Tarpons home with a football autographed by every Plaquemine player and coach.

Tessie posted a photo on Facebook of Trevor receiving the gifts on Saturday from Tarpons assistant coach Scott Sanamo. In the photo, Trevor is smiling a soft, carefree smile as he clutches the signed football.


“Pure class,” Skains said when asked about the gesture. “We’d have been happy with just a moment of silence. They went above and beyond. For them to do that for us showed the character and quality of their football program. That was an amazing gesture and one that our team will not ever forget.”

“It’s all a brotherhood,” Plaquemine coach Paul Distefano added. “If it happened to us next time, we’d want people to be praying and supporting us, so the least we can do is show love to their young man in need.”

LONG RECOVERY AHEAD; CONTINUED PRAYERS NEEDED


Trevor is home, but is far from 100 percent health.

He’s somewhat able to walk, but he needs assistance from family to avoid a fall. In surgery, a portion of his skull was removed to alleviate pressure on his brain. That has yet to be replaced and will need to be done in the future.

Trevor’s once well-kept hair is mostly gone and shaved – a byproduct of the surgery, which has left him a huge, question mark-shaped skull across his scalp.


But Tessie said even since returning home, Trevor has made significant progress and continues to get better and better by the hour.

“His swelling in his head is almost completely gone,” the mother said. “Along with the swelling on his face. He’s eating well and drinking. … He is in good spirits. He enjoys texting and SnapChatting his friends.

“He gets tired easily, but that is to be expected.”


The mother asked people in the community to continue to pray for her son as he continues his slow, steady progression.

She said that those same prayers are why he’s been able to move along so quickly so far through what once looked like a grim situation.

“Without the grace of God, His healing power and the many prayers said for Trevor, I really don’t know where we would be today,” Tessie said. “We would like to ask for everyone to continue the prayers for Trevor while he begins his recovery and therapy.


“God is awesome. We are so blessed with the overwhelming support from family, friends, acquaintances and even strangers who are praying for him.” •

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