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Tournaments  | Story | 7/9/2019

Road to recovery

Nate Schweers
Photo: Josh Fowler (Perfect Game)

DALLAS – To the average fan, parent, sibling, or coach in attendance at Grapevine High School on Friday morning, it was just another day of summer baseball in the Texas heat. The crack of the bat, the pop of the mitt, the chatter and comradery amongst teammates. However, for Josh Fowler and his mother Jackie, it was a morning that brought joy, smiles and hope.

To understand the excitement Fowler felt in that moment, it is important to understand just how far he has come.



The Accident

On March 10, 2019, Josh Fowler was in a car accident. On his way to a Sunday evening batting practice with a friend, Fowler’s vehicle was struck by another in Ganado, Texas. Medical and emergency personnel flooded the scene, and that night, Fowler was life-flighted from Jackson County Airport to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

“It felt like the road was going forever and time was just moving so slow,” said Fowler’s mother Jackie of she and her husband Spence’s drive to the hospital that night. “We got there, they said he had a brain bleed, a spleen bleed, and they were in the process of stitching him up.”

After arriving at the emergency room, Jackie and Spence Fowler found their son cut, bruised, intubated and fighting to break free from the constraints he had been given. Unable to speak or walk, Fowler was put into a medically-induced coma that night.

Then, nine days later, Josh Fowler woke up.

“The level of his trauma was really severe, and so the expectations of where he was going to be and how he was going to progress were low,” added Jackie Fowler. “They were preparing us for a very long road to recovery.”

“The next thing I remember was waking up in the bed and just asking, ‘what happened,’” added Josh. “They told me that I was in a wreck, and I really didn’t believe it until I saw the tubes coming out of me and stuff like that. That was when it really hit me, I was in a wreck.”

Recovery, Prayer, and Baseball

After spending nearly two weeks in the Shock and Trauma unit, Fowler was moved to TIRR, Memorial Hermann’s outpatient rehabilitation unit. In the outpatient rehabilitation unit, Fowler attempted to take back his independence any way he could, choosing to fight and stay active in the best way he knew, baseball.

“His varsity team would Facetime him into games, and he would spend his time coaching from the bed and critiquing the players,” said Jackie Fowler. “He was still learning his vocabulary again and trying to make complete sentences, but through that whole time he was able to talk to his friends and teammates.”

Following a brain injury, patients are supposed to sit in an upright and parallel position to create the quickest recovery possible, and memory retention and motor skills are sometimes a question mark. However, Fowler sat in his hospital room one day, picked up a baseball, and gripped a two-seam fastball. Finally, a breakthrough.

From there, Fowler made visible strides daily, eventually being released to return home on Friday, March 29. While Fowler continued to regain his strength, speech, and memory, baseball never left.

“It [baseball] is 100 percent what drove me. It was all I would think about night and day,” said Fowler, who was having an unbelievable freshman campaign before the accident.“ I was tearing it up. I have never hit that well in my entire life.”

The freshman was truly having an eye-popping start to his first varsity season, batting .407 while also leading the Ganado Indians in slugging percentage, RBI, on-base percentage and fielding percentage. After such a strong start to his high school baseball career, it became clear that nothing was going to stop Fowler from getting back on the diamond.

While baseball was and is his passion, Fowler found himself in a constant state of prayer following the March accident.

“What helped my miraculous recovery was through the power of prayer,” Fowler said. “Everyone in my town prayed for me, friends, family and baseball family from West Coast to East Coast. I was just so thankful to be alive.

“Prayer was sometimes the only thing that would calm me down, and I just wanted to be a kid.”

A Good Teammate, Dreamer and Competitor

While some young baseball players may use a tragedy such as Josh’s as a reason to slow down, he only sees it as a reason to speed up.

“When people have Tommy John surgery, they usually call it lightning in a bottle because if they work super hard they can come back performing better than ever,” said Fowler with a beaming smile on his face. “so, I am going to use this as my lighting in a bottle to be even better than I was.”

Fowler is attacking his rehab with confidence and drive, and he is starting to get back to his former self on the diamond. South Texas Sliders 15u Koehl head coach Chad Koehl had the privilege of throwing Fowler his first batting practice since the accident this week, and he has been in awe at the progress being made.

“We put him in one of the groups to hit, and I got to throw to him,” said Koehl. “Seeing him hit and the talent that he has, the kids know that he would be here playing on this team if this accident wouldn’t have happened.”

Fowler has been trying to make as many tournaments as he can this summer, missing only one earlier in June. This week, Fowler has gotten to watch his teammates get off to a 4-0 start at the 2019 WWBA 15u South National Championship. Though Fowler wishes he could step up to the plate or throw it across the diamond for the Sliders in Dallas, being back in the dugout and in his No. 19 jersey has been one of the most exciting moments to date in the recovery process.

“It gave me the goosebumps, it gave me the chills, and there was just so much adrenaline running through my veins,” said Fowler. “It was just so much excitement.”

With a final clearing appointment on August 21, Fowler hopes to be back in the action in the near future. One thing that is certain is that when that day comes, it will be the product of faith, perseverance, and an appreciation for the adversity he has faced throughout his life.

So here’s to you Josh Fowler. A friend and teammate to many and an inspiration to all.
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