Devin McClellan was still in the car with blood on his face and felt very confused about what had just happened.
The airbags had failed to go off which made the impact much worse.
McClellan had yelled “hey siri,”
Bryce Fuller had seen his phone light up and said,
“Call 911”
Teens go out and have fun at night with their friends, but sometimes things end up not being fun.
On Aug. 3, 2024, Lakeland student Thor Rogers was in a tragic accident with Fuller and one other friend, McClellan. The three boys were following a car with a middle aged woman driving, that was getting road rage. Fuller tried his best to stay in control of the car, but the woman had run the three boys off the road.
Rogers had gone flying out of the windshield, while the car flipped three times. Fuller had seen that Rogers wasn’t in his seat anymore. Luckily, the helicopter was able to locate Rogers 120 feet away from where the car was and rushed him to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.
“I was trying to look for Thor, but I was scared to find him if he was dead,” Fuller said.
When Rogers had gotten to the hospital they had immediately rushed him to keep him conscious but he couldn’t breathe on his own, universally the doctors decided to put him on a ventilator and put him in an induced coma.
Later Rogers was taken off the ventilator but then was reversed due to getting pneumonia during the coma. After 9 days of being in the coma, the doctors woke him up and he was able to recognize everyone around him and was talking.
Rogers had shattered his right arm and immediately had surgery to get a titanium rod, after the surgeon had pieced his bone back together, to hold the bone in place. On top of that he had fractured his spine, which caused him to wear a brace for three months.
Rogers was transferred to St. Lukes Rehabilitation medical center for two weeks of rehab. He had to relearn how to walk, how to text, and how to read.
Fuller and McClellan were released from the hospital and quickly taken care of. They were still at the hospital often visiting Rogers.
Rogers was released from St. Lukes on Aug. 29, 2024. He had only a week left of summer before having to go back to school. He wishes he could remember what had happened that night but he doesn’t remember that entire day leading up to when he was in rehab. That had made him want to go home as soon as he could because it didn’t feel real to him.
“I wanted to get out of the hospital as soon as possible,” Rogers said. “The last week felt like the longest part just waiting to be released.”
It has seemed the worst part was over, but then the long recovery process of getting back to life was starting. Junior year just seemed like another school year to him but in reality he knew it wasn’t and felt embarrassed going back to school.
He had returned to school on the second day of his junior year. He had struggled going back to school having to wear his brace that went from his chin down to the bottom of his ribcage. He had felt lonely, depressed, and constantly tired from the meds. Rogers knew the challenges he had to face knowing that it was going to be difficult to overcome mentally.
“I considered pulling him out of school, but he wanted to be a normal kid and stay in school,” Rogers’ Mother, Danielle Aeschlimann said.
Rogers is very driven, hard working, and passionate about life and carries himself proudly. He went back to school with the best possible attitude he could have. He had to do his testing to see where all of his reading, writing, and math skills were. He had to also go to speech therapy within the school to help him back to where he was at.
“Once I was healed 100 percent, I was more present in school, on top of my work, and felt like I had better memory,” Rogers said. “Even though it felt like I physically died for a month, I was able to get back up on my feet and become better than I was before.”
Rogers had slowly started to fully recover and get back on track. He was meant to get his license on Aug. 5, 2024 but due to the accident he had to wait a bit longer. He ended up getting his license on Mar. 3, 2025.
The accident had put a hold on Rogers accomplishments, but it set goals for him to achieve after recovering.
He had improved on all of his testing; better than where it was before the accident. All of his teachers had seen improvement so quickly for getting back in the groove of things. His English teacher, Maurissa Archer, had seen his improvements more since she was his case manager that has to keep him on track.
“Its amazing to see how much his intelligence has improved when given the expectation of him not being able to remember how to do certain things,” Archer said. “He really is a smart, passionate, and joyful kid and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Rogers had started senior year with a better mindset, he had set the goal for himself to get better grades and to be a better student overall. He has started his senior year with a 3.5 GPA and has had better behavior and staying out of trouble.
Rogers was determined to make his senior year a lot better than last year and he’s done more than just make it better. He has become a better person overall and lights up every room he walks into with his joyful personality.
“It taught me there is so much more to life, and how much I am truly loved by my family,” Rogers said.
