Nebraska farmer makes miraculous recovery after hunting accident

Brock Melton is a miracle.

The 26–year–old farmer from Oak, Nebraska walked through the halls of the Bryan Trauma Center Wednesday.

It’s a place all too familiar to him; a place responsible for saving his life.

On November 20th, 2016, Brock was shot in the head while on a hunting trip with friends in Courtland, Kansas.

The bullet went through both hemispheres of his brain.

He was taken to this room in the Trauma Center at Bryan West as a Category 1 patient –the most severe. H given only about a 10 percent chance of living.

"Here’s a young kid with a very bad injury,” Dr. Stanley Okosun, the Bryan Trauma Medical Director and Brock’s doctor. “That’s what we do in our Trauma Center, we needed to save lives and time was of essence. [The severity] was a 10, because in most cases that have a gunshot wound to the head, you would not survive."

Brock did.

Surgeons had to first remove the bullet and part of his skull.

Then he spent nearly a month at Bryan Trauma Center before beginning rehab with a tenacity like none other.

He had a goal: to get back to doing what he loves.

“I just, want to get back to farming,” Brock said Wednesday, fighting back tears.

Months of rehabilitation later, he climbed back into his tractor this spring, just in time to plant.

“It meant a lot for him to get back there,” Brock’s father, John, said. [Its] something to look forward to.”

On Wednesday, Brock was honored as Bryan Health’s Trauma Champion.

His family and entire team of doctors, nurses and medical staff were all there to celebrate his success.

He’s not just defying the odds of recovery, but becoming the man, the son, the farmer, he’s always been championed to be.