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Hebert released from the hospital
  
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By Michael Sudhalter
Last Wednesday proved to be a very special Christmas Eve for Jersey Village High sophomore Devin Hebert.
Hebert, 16, who was paralyzed from the waist down after making a tackle in a junior varsity football game on Oct. 9, was released from The Institute for Research and Rehabilitation (TIRR) at Memorial Hermann Hospital on Christmas Eve.
“I have a lot of hope that things will get better,” Hebert said. “It feels good. I’m ready to go home and see my family.”
Hebert’s mother, D’Juna Vontoure, stayed with him at the hospital during the entire visit. She was happy to be taking her son home, but not before some last-minute Christmas shopping.
“It’s a blessing,” Vontoure said. “It’s Christmas Eve, we have a lot to be thankful for. We’re going to get prepared for the New Year. I’m going to just let Devin get whatever he wants – it’s his day today.”
Hebert received well-wishes, holiday greetings and goodbyes from hospital staff and fellow patients last Wednesday before leaving the hospital for the first time since the injury. He’ll continue his rehabilitation process at home with motion ranges and other exercise.
“It’s a big day,” Jersey Village football coach David Snokhous said. “It’s progress in the making. He still has a long ways to go. The last time I talked to him, he was excited about (being released from the hospital). I’m sure it feels good to be home. He’ll get some normalcy back in his life.”
Hebert still has a long road to recovery; he’s still wearing a neck brace from where doctors fused his vertebrae back together and uses a tracheotomy as a precaution, at least for a couple more months.
He’s able to move his arms, but he must be transported from his wheelchair to his mother’s sedan in a special device called a Trixielift, in which it takes approximately seven minutes to get from the wheelchair into the driver’s side passenger seat.
Vontoure said she needs a specialized van that will cost about $40,000-50,000 to transport her son.
“We struggled to get in this car,” Vontoure said. “We’re going to need a van for transportation because my car is really small, and it’s going to be too small to carry his equipment.”
Hebert, who played quarterback for the Falcons’ junior varsity, remembers what happened during his injury and never lost consciouness during it.
“I was throwing a (pass), it got tipped in the air for an interception, I tried to tackle the guy low, I used my head and it was down,” Hebert said. “My neck snapped. I didn’t even feel it, I just fell down on my back. I was kind of sad because I knew I was paralyzed, but I wasn’t crying. I just kind of had a sad voice and didn’t know what to do.”
Vontoure was on her way to the game, which was played at Cy Springs High School, when she received word of Hebert’s injury.
“I got a phone call saying Devin was being taken to St. Joseph down the street, and when I got there, they said they didn’t have anyone there,” Vontoure said. “The coach called me again, and they told me Lifeflight was picking Devin up, and they said just go to Hermann. I went to Hermann and waited for him at the emergency room. He was there when I got there.”
Vontoure said her son’s stay in Memorial Hermann’s Intensive Care Unit has been filled with making progress and taking steps backward.
“Devin had an eight-hour surgery Thursday night that lasted until Friday morning. He was doing really well,” Vontoure said. “His friends and coaches all came to visit him on Saturday. He had an enormous amount of visits from morn til night. On Sunday night, D took a turn for the worst. His lungs collapsed. They had to put a tube down his throat, he’s had pneumonia a couple of times.”
He recovered from the bouts with pneumonia and was transferred to TIRR on Nov. 3, and teachers visited the hospital so he could resume schoolwork; he’ll be homeschooled for the remainder of the school year but hopes to return to Jersey Village at some point.
“They’ve been really supportive, they’ve been really good,” Hebert said of his coaches, teammates and friends at Jersey Village.
The Cy-Fair ISD raised money for Hebert at football games, and that helped Vontoure buy him several essential things, including a special mattress that was far more comfortable than a hospital bed.
“It helped to get Devin a bed because the mattress alone was like $3,000 so he wouldn’t have to have a hospital bed,” Vontoure said. “We had to get a lift and a ramp made.”
Hebert has become friends with former Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett, a Port Arthur native who was believed to be paralyzed after suffering a neck injury. Everett has since walked again.
“I always see him,” Hebert said. “I talk to him. For the first time, it was cool and everything. I really know him now.When we talk now, we don’t talk about my injury. We just talk normal.”
Vontoure doesn’t know what the future holds for Hebert, but she’ll be by his side regardless of what happens.
“It’s a day to day thing,” Vontoure said. “Only God knows what the future holds. We’ll just continue to do what they ask us to do that could help him. Devin wakes up one morning and his toes were moving, he wakes up one morning and his wrist was moving. The doctors don’t know, nobody knows.”
Hebert, 16, who was paralyzed from the waist down after making a tackle in a junior varsity football game on Oct. 9, was released from The Institute for Research and Rehabilitation (TIRR) at Memorial Hermann Hospital on Christmas Eve.
“I have a lot of hope that things will get better,” Hebert said. “It feels good. I’m ready to go home and see my family.”
Hebert’s mother, D’Juna Vontoure, stayed with him at the hospital during the entire visit. She was happy to be taking her son home, but not before some last-minute Christmas shopping.
“It’s a blessing,” Vontoure said. “It’s Christmas Eve, we have a lot to be thankful for. We’re going to get prepared for the New Year. I’m going to just let Devin get whatever he wants – it’s his day today.”
Hebert received well-wishes, holiday greetings and goodbyes from hospital staff and fellow patients last Wednesday before leaving the hospital for the first time since the injury. He’ll continue his rehabilitation process at home with motion ranges and other exercise.
“It’s a big day,” Jersey Village football coach David Snokhous said. “It’s progress in the making. He still has a long ways to go. The last time I talked to him, he was excited about (being released from the hospital). I’m sure it feels good to be home. He’ll get some normalcy back in his life.”
Hebert still has a long road to recovery; he’s still wearing a neck brace from where doctors fused his vertebrae back together and uses a tracheotomy as a precaution, at least for a couple more months.
He’s able to move his arms, but he must be transported from his wheelchair to his mother’s sedan in a special device called a Trixielift, in which it takes approximately seven minutes to get from the wheelchair into the driver’s side passenger seat.
Vontoure said she needs a specialized van that will cost about $40,000-50,000 to transport her son.
“We struggled to get in this car,” Vontoure said. “We’re going to need a van for transportation because my car is really small, and it’s going to be too small to carry his equipment.”
Hebert, who played quarterback for the Falcons’ junior varsity, remembers what happened during his injury and never lost consciouness during it.
“I was throwing a (pass), it got tipped in the air for an interception, I tried to tackle the guy low, I used my head and it was down,” Hebert said. “My neck snapped. I didn’t even feel it, I just fell down on my back. I was kind of sad because I knew I was paralyzed, but I wasn’t crying. I just kind of had a sad voice and didn’t know what to do.”
Vontoure was on her way to the game, which was played at Cy Springs High School, when she received word of Hebert’s injury.
“I got a phone call saying Devin was being taken to St. Joseph down the street, and when I got there, they said they didn’t have anyone there,” Vontoure said. “The coach called me again, and they told me Lifeflight was picking Devin up, and they said just go to Hermann. I went to Hermann and waited for him at the emergency room. He was there when I got there.”
Vontoure said her son’s stay in Memorial Hermann’s Intensive Care Unit has been filled with making progress and taking steps backward.
“Devin had an eight-hour surgery Thursday night that lasted until Friday morning. He was doing really well,” Vontoure said. “His friends and coaches all came to visit him on Saturday. He had an enormous amount of visits from morn til night. On Sunday night, D took a turn for the worst. His lungs collapsed. They had to put a tube down his throat, he’s had pneumonia a couple of times.”
He recovered from the bouts with pneumonia and was transferred to TIRR on Nov. 3, and teachers visited the hospital so he could resume schoolwork; he’ll be homeschooled for the remainder of the school year but hopes to return to Jersey Village at some point.
“They’ve been really supportive, they’ve been really good,” Hebert said of his coaches, teammates and friends at Jersey Village.
The Cy-Fair ISD raised money for Hebert at football games, and that helped Vontoure buy him several essential things, including a special mattress that was far more comfortable than a hospital bed.
“It helped to get Devin a bed because the mattress alone was like $3,000 so he wouldn’t have to have a hospital bed,” Vontoure said. “We had to get a lift and a ramp made.”
Hebert has become friends with former Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett, a Port Arthur native who was believed to be paralyzed after suffering a neck injury. Everett has since walked again.
“I always see him,” Hebert said. “I talk to him. For the first time, it was cool and everything. I really know him now.When we talk now, we don’t talk about my injury. We just talk normal.”
Vontoure doesn’t know what the future holds for Hebert, but she’ll be by his side regardless of what happens.
“It’s a day to day thing,” Vontoure said. “Only God knows what the future holds. We’ll just continue to do what they ask us to do that could help him. Devin wakes up one morning and his toes were moving, he wakes up one morning and his wrist was moving. The doctors don’t know, nobody knows.”
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