After a near-fatal DeKalb crash, local chef is battling to reclaim her life

Even the most basic tasks, once effortless, are now arduous. That’s because multiple screws had to be placed in that damaged knee and a metal rod was inserted in her shattered left leg, which narrowly escaped amputation.

The collision’s impact also splintered the 25-year-old’s left arm, fractured her right wrist, neck and nose, and caused her brain to swell and bleed. It forced doctors to place her in a medically-induced coma.

It is a miracle De’Avion is even alive.

“Dead on arrival. I could have died that night,” De’Avion, who goes by the nickname Dee, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution during a recent interview. “I could have had my leg amputated. I just be trying to roll through the hardships.”

Walking again? That’s a monumental milestone she has slowly been chipping away at during her intense rehabilitation.

Dee is healing fast, her physical therapist emphasized, but it’s unlikely she will ever move with the same ease as before.

A horrifying head-on collision

It was around 3:15 a.m. on Oct. 27 when a woman in a Cadillac Escalade, driving on the wrong side of U.S. 78, struck Dee’s Mazda 3 head-on, according to a police report. The other driver was cited for driving on the wrong side of the road, a misdemeanor, and without a license, the report added.

Dee, who was 24 at the time but already a veteran chef, was returning to her Gwinnett County home from a friend’s house in South Fulton after attending a Halloween party. She had driven to Peyton Brinson’s home after her shift at Seasons 52 in Dunwoody and was scheduled to work the breakfast shift at First Watch in Tucker at 7 a.m. the morning of the crash.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

Dee never arrived at First Watch. And several hours later, she failed to clock in at Seasons 52. It wasn’t like her to miss work.

Realizing something was wrong, Dee’s mother, Chiene Cook, began to call hospitals across metro Atlanta in a panic. Peyton took on the task of trying to locate Dee’s vehicle, which she did at a tow yard, where an employee confirmed the driver was involved in an awful crash.

“I proceeded to call her mother and update her. She didn’t take it well, of course. And she just kind of hit me with the I-just-told-her-that-her-daughter’s-dead-type of scream, which is something you never get out of your head,” Peyton said.

Waking up from a coma

By the time Chiene and Peyton got to see Dee at Grady Memorial Hospital, several lifesaving surgeries had already been performed. An external metal rod and gauze stained red from blood were the clear signs Dee had been through a harrowing experience.

“It was just crazy to see her walking and talking and laughing at the party, and then now she was unconscious in a medically-induced coma less than 24 hours later,” said Peyton, who was not able to see her friend until about 18 hours after the crash.

When Dee finally woke up three days later, she was disoriented, in pain, cranky and completely unaware of her situation. Peyton recounted that Dee wanted to immediately stand up and go home.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

But within a couple of weeks, she was smiling in the hospital and looking forward to using a wheelchair, viewing it as a bridge to walking again and leaving the trauma in the past. Dee was discharged in mid-November and continued her recovery from the comfort of her home, where her mother was suddenly tasked with providing everything for her.

“It’s weird to go from an independent 24-year-old to an invalid,” Chiene said.

The adjustment was significant, Chiene explained, as she took on the temporary, but full-time care of her daughter. Every task, from meals to baths to basic movements, became her responsibility.

Step by step

After more than two months of being almost completely immobilized, Dee had to relearn to walk. She started therapy shortly after the new year at Fyzical in Lawrenceville and at first could only move around in a wheelchair, before upgrading to crutches in late January.

She is having to teach her legs to move in ways that once came naturally.

“It’s not even in a sense of like my leg isn’t moving how I want it. I genuinely have forgotten how to bend the leg when I’m making a step and put my foot down with the heel touching the floor,” Dee explained.

Since late February, she has been walking with a cane and has been getting her own groceries, cooking some meals, showering by herself and taking care of her corgi. While Chiene continues to assist with certain tasks, a semblance of normalcy has returned.

Some days, Dee still grapples with the anxieties that once threatened to rob her of her independence.

“It’s gotten a lot better,” Chiene said. “She still has a good amount of handicap, and her strength is not where it should be. If she’s up for a while, that requires a good bit of rest.”

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dee’s physical therapy sessions are spent stretching, building muscle and working on functional movements. But they are also spent tightly clutching a stress ball, taking deep breaths amid painful movements and yelping when something doesn’t feel quite right.

Every step Dee takes seems foreign, and even the slightest movement of her wrist feels restricted, awkward and uncomfortable.

Cassandra “Cassy” Wilhelm, her physical therapist, said during an early March session that Dee’s knee flexion remains limited. Bending it can feel similar to someone sitting on your shoulders and forcing a split. But that’s normal, considering all the hardware in Dee’s body.

“Our goal is that it should be able to normalize. You probably won’t ever get a full range of motion back, but it should be functional,” Wilhelm said, emphasizing that Dee has put more work into her recovery than many of her patients.

Dee hopes to be walking unassisted soon, while Cassy anticipates August, but the therapist acknowledged Dee’s rapid progress could change that.

With that much therapy comes another burden: money. Dee said she has no health insurance and did not get much from a settlement. Paying for physical therapy out of her own pocket has drained her life savings. She started a GoFundMe campaign to help with the costs.

New limitations

There will always be something going on with Dee’s leg.

For the rest of her life, she will have to get yearly MRIs. She explained that the artery that replaced her shattered popliteal artery on the back of her left knee is subject to collapse at any time. The mere thought of what could happen often triggers a downward spiral of endless what-ifs.

Chiene cannot shake the fear that her daughter might never feel the freedom of running or jumping again.

“She does give a good, solid presentation outside, but it’s very, very difficult for her. She feels like, even though she didn’t cause the accident, she feels like she’s the only person that’s been punished,” Chiene said.

The driver who struck Dee’s car was also extracted from her SUV after sustaining leg injuries and heavy facial swelling. She was taken to Northside Hospital in Gwinnett, a Level 2 trauma center.

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dee worries she might never be able to return to the kitchen with the same energy she once had. She had been working as a chef since high school and even competed in culinary competitions as a teenager.

But now, something as simple as holding a tray or lifting heavy pots and pans has become an exhausting challenge. With a cane in hand, those once-easy movements feel out of reach some days.

But Dee is determined to adapt and find new ways to work with her limitations.

“It’s really just like swallowing a pill lately of how my reality is going to be,” she said.