INDIANAPOLIS — On Tuesday afternoon, Brilea Southard is watching ‘happy birthday’ messages play out on a projector.
“I just feel very blessed that I have the support that I do,” said Southard.
It’s her sixteenth birthday, but it’s not exactly the Super Sweet Sixteen she had imagined, in a conference room at Riley Hospital for Children, but celebrating this birthday is extra sweet.
“I was only given a four percent chance of living,” said Southard.
“There’s also this unique exciting tone to it that she has all these people that have helped her heal, who have helped take care of her who have watched her get better and better and better here to celebrate her today,” said Paula Allen, Brilea’s mom.
Brilea has been in the hospital for more than 400 days.
“Being here over a year is devastating, but I also know what the alternative would have been, so we’ll be here as long as it takes to heal her,” said Allen.
In December 2023, Brilea and her family were out looking at Christmas lights in Terre Haute.
“We were driving and a 17-year-old impaired driver crossed the line and hit us head on,” said Allen.
“My moms phone flew across the car to me and I picked it up since my side of the car wasn’t the side that got hit, I was in the middle row of our van,” recalled Southard. “I opened the door calling 911 and that’s when my aorta tear started to take effect.”
Brilea was the one most seriously injured. She had an aortic tear and initially thought she would lose both of her legs. She hasn’t been able to eat solid food since May and has had 27 surgeries. Each of those surgeries presented their own challenges.
“Bittersweet, I keep saying it’s a thin gray line of this or that, or a roller coaster that I never asked to be on and I want off of,” said Allen.
But, there’s always light that comes with those challenges because Brilea is pretty strong-willed.
In April, she was able to leave the hospital walls for the first time look at the eclipse and in November with doctors and nurses by her side saw Taylor Swift in concert.
Now, she’s starting to walk on her own again and is hoping to get back to dancing and color guard at school.
“My rifle for color guard, I have it up here, so the fact that I’m still able to do that when they didn’t even think I could stand, even walk, that is a miracle just right there,” said Southard.
And on her sixteen birthday the fact that she can get dressed up, play games, and stand for pictures is another milestone in on her journey.
“I feel very blessed.”
