Many of you may recognize Josh Ward as a Texas country music star. However, in August, he was doing what he truly loves, riding horses, when he was badly injured.
“He couldn’t go anywhere. We were in a tight spot, so when he left, he put a foot in my gut,” Ward, explaining how he got pinned under his horse.
He had no idea the tremendous damage that was done in that swift movement.
“I’ve had worse things that weren’t life-threatening,” Ward thought at first. “This one was [life-threatening]. I faded on her pretty quick. I got to the hospital, and my blood pressure was 70/40.”
Dr. Paul Evans, trauma surgeon with Memorial Hermann in The Woodlands, immediately took Ward into the operating room and compared his injury to a car accident.
“It’s the same as what you would see after a seatbelt injury. It’s almost the exact same thing. It’s called a bucket handle injury, a loop of bowel is torn off from its blood supply, and so you have to go in and fix that,” Dr. Evans explained.
While seatbelts save lives, blunt force trauma during a vehicle crash can cause a bucket handle injury, Evans said.
Ward said he took two months to recover, but got back in the saddle immediately after he got the green light. Now, he feels thankful to be alive.
“Was this supposed to happen? For me to come home and spend time with the family? You know, with being so busy on the road, was this a wake-up call to go, ‘Hey man, you know, get back to being you,’” Ward wonders.
Since he was hospitalized during the height of a COVID surge and unable to have visitors, he’s especially thankful for his medical team who showed compassion when his family couldn’t be by his side. He said one of his nurses even saw him recently in concert.
“I’d always told her, the next time that you see me, you won’t see this guy that’s laying in this hospital bed. You’re gonna see a different side of me, and she was like, ‘That’s what I want to see!’” Ward said.
Ward’s next local performance is at the Montgomery County Music and Mudbugs Festival on March 26.