A note from the author: The following is the story of mother and daughter combo, Amy and Ava Jones. Because they experienced their accident and loss together, their story is combined, with quotes and feedback from both. Amy’s testimony appears in black font, and Ava’s appears in red.
Amy Jones (46) of Nickerson, KS is a motivated mother of three. She currently works as an Assistant Superintendent for the school district in Nickerson. “But in my free time, I go to my children’s sporting events. My son runs track at a college, and Ava is on the basketball team at the University of Iowa. Then my 12-year old plays all sorts of rec sports, so I’m usually following him around.” Amy met her late husband while they were both on the track team in college, and Amy played both basketball and volleyball in addition to track, where she was a high jumper. Amy always enjoyed exercise, but due to the events of 2022 hasn’t been able to work out with much consistency.
Ava Jones (19) of Nickerson, KS is an undergraduate student at the University of Iowa, where she is on scholarship to play basketball for the women’s basketball team. The team recently just enjoyed an incredible run to the Final Four in 2024, making it all the way to the NCAA National Championship. She played basketball most of her life rotating to different positions, including Forward, Center, Guard and post positions. Ava additionally played volleyball and ran track.
Ava’s first year of undergrad has looked differently than it does for many of her peers, as she has been on the mend from injuries she sustained in an accident in 2022 in Louisville, KY. “It’s been a lot of emotions, besides adjusting to college. It’s been a lot of emotions, figuring out who I am by myself, and making friends and teammates. I picked a really great school to come to.” She is planning to study Sport Media and Journalism, and hopes to pursue Sports Broadcasting in her career.
Besides recovery, basketball obligations, and studying, Ava enjoys a few creative hobbies. “Since the accident, I’ve been trying to find something else to enjoy. I play the guitar, hang out with my friends…I like to workout a lot, I love doing that almost as much as basketball. I just started getting back into that. And I love reading; I love anything by Colleen Hoover, including ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,’ and, ‘Ugly Love.’”
On July 5th, 2022, around 7:34 in the evening in downtown Louisville near the walking bridge, the Jones’ family’s life was violently upended. They were walking through the Distillery District near Old Forester in the moments leading up to the event, but both have very little memory of the moments leading up to the event. “I remember we all hopped on Bird scooters to get around. We all rode down to the river, and watched a fireworks show. I also remember that our hotel had an arcade with a bunch of older games, and my dad spent a bit of time down there while we were in town reminiscing.”
“I honestly don’t remember any of that; taking photos, leaving the hotel that evening…Ava had COVID, which we had only found out while we were there.” Amy decided to wander Louisville with Creek and Trey (William “Trey” A. Jones is Amy’s husband, and Creek is their son), while Ava stayed in the hotel room. The family was in town for an AAU basketball tournament Ava was scheduled to play in. While Ava couldn’t play, the family decided to try and walk around to find some dinner, and they left the hotel.
“We were standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street and a driver under the influence of fentanyl and hydrocodone was groggy and couldn’t make the turn, and he ran onto the sidewalk where we were standing.” Amy and Ava both sustained significant injuries that required extensive surgical procedures. Trey pushed Creek out of the way of the vehicle before he was hit head-on, killing Trey. The family was taken to UofL Health for emergency care. Amy believes they were knocked out or in a coma before they arrived at the hospital. “Apparently there was an off-duty police officer who was eating in the area when the accident happened, and he was able to initiate first aid until first responders could arrive. Creek was the only one who was conscious after this, and he FaceTimed my mom, who was able to coordinate with the Louisville police department. My mom was in Wichita at the time.”
Ava was in a coma for about two weeks, and Amy was in a coma for a few days longer. “I remember that my older brother stayed in the room with me while I was in the UofL ICU, watching over me and keeping me company,” Ava notes. “I pulled my trach, my feeding tube, and more out several times while I was in my coma. I had to re-learn how to walk and talk again at Frazier.” Ava suffered from a torn ACL, PCL, MCL, and more on her right knee, and suffered similar tears and injuries to her left knee. She also broke her collarbone, and had a grade-4 AC joint separation, in addition to a TBI and some nerve damage in her eye. “I had double vision constantly, and had to get eye surgery. My first knee surgery was November 21, 2022, then January 2023 for my other knee. Then surgeries in April and July of 2023, followed by an eye surgery in January 2024. My next eye surgery will be on July 8, 2024.”
Amy had a bit of a different story. “I remember bits and pieces of the first few days after. My mother-in-law and her sister were there, and I briefly remember being able to say hello to them. But the first time I felt mostly coherent was when the paramedic was moving me from UofL to Frazier. He asked if I knew what happened, and he told me bits and pieces of the story. Because of the intense amount of medication, I didn’t have a super emotional reaction, I was just doing whatever they told me to do.” Amy began speech, occupational, and physical therapy. Amy had 22 bones broken on the right side of her body, including her neck and shoulder, which made physical therapy extremely painful. “My shoulder hurt the worst, and it was so frustrating. But my worst injury was my right leg, where I had a compound fracture. Even just trying to stand and put a little pressure on my right leg was enough to pass out.” Amy also dealt with a leg infection which took her back to UofL Health, where she spent the last week of her stay in Louisville, a stroke while she was in a coma, a collapsed lung, and a low-grade TBI.
Amy’s low point mentally was seeing her leg after surgery, because the team had to use part of her calf to cover another wound that was on her shin. “It made balance, standing…it just throws everything off when you no longer have a muscle you’re used to having. It’s pretty frustrating.” This is especially true in the case of a lifelong athlete like Amy.
Ava doesn’t remember much of her time in Louisville. “My older brother told me my dad had died, but I didn’t have many emotions at the moment because of the medications. I also learned that Iowa was going to honor my scholarship, regardless of whether or not I play a game. My grandmother stayed with us throughout, and she brought me Chick-Fil-A whenever I wanted it; I think I had it for 25 days straight, while mixing in some Qdoba and hospital food. That’s most of what I remember from Louisville.”
Amy had three surgeries in five days at UofL. “The doctors were working with doctors in Wichita, KS to get me an orthopedic surgeon in Kansas that I could see when I got home. Once they connected me with someone back home, I took a medical flight from UofL to Kansas. I think it was August 18, 2022 when we flew home.”
“There wasn’t much I could do; no sports, and no school while I recovered. I kind of took the first semester off. I remember my PT at Frazier a little bit; I had PT, OT, and speech back to back, which is all I did for four weeks after two weeks in the ICU.”
After Amy got home, she felt a mix of emotions. “It took me a very long time to come to terms with what had happened, because I was so involved daily with my own recovery. I needed help getting out of bed, all my bones were still recovering from being broken, I had a neck brace on for 12 weeks…I had a lot of injuries to overcome, and that took all my energy and focus. I just wanted to work hard to get back to normal, even things like taking a shower by myself. It was really awful, but luckily I had a lot of people who were able to help take care of me. You really do take everything, even the little things for granted, which you realize when you’re stuck at home, unable to care for yourself. I know of course that things could be worse.”
“Because my brain injury was so bad, I didn’t really process it at first when I got home. I would just cry a lot, and I didn’t know why I was crying. Then when I got to Iowa, I started seeing the sports therapist in addition to PT, OT, and speech, and voice. I’m learning myself again, and where I’m at now. I don’t remember much of my senior year of high school, because it’s all blurred together.”
In June and July of 2023, Amy went back in for additional surgeries for her leg, which was still infected. Amy will have to take an antibiotic for the rest of her life to combat the infection, due to the metal in her leg. “It was so frustrating, because I had to go back into a wheelchair after adjusting to getting around with a walker. I knew I had to do it, but it was super hard to go back into a wheelchair after making a bit of progress.” Amy had another long recovery after these procedures. In September 2023, Amy got clearance from her orthopedic surgeon to start limited walking, the first time she had been able to do so since Summer 2022.
Recovery was frustrating, but Amy was ready to get to work. “I didn’t want to live my life like this, hobbling around all the time. I decided to get a Peloton, get on the bike, and start building some muscle and working out. That was so hard, but so rewarding. From there I could do a little weight training, and now, almost two years later, I feel like I’m walking without a limp. The better I started to feel, the more I was able to cope with the grief, and everything that happened. The physical recovery allowed me to personally recover.”
Ava had similar emotions as she began her recovery. “It makes me proud of myself. I believe everything happens for a reason, and I’ve begun to give all of my worries to God, and that’s really helped me. My first semester of college I was really depressed. It was bad. But I grew my faith and started to see that it’s okay to have these feelings. What I’ve been through is not normal, and I’ve grown closer to God. I feel like it’s okay to tell Him what you’re worrying about, and hopefully He can solve it. He knows the plan for us, and I put my trust into Him. The grass doesn’t get greener if it doesn’t rain. I was tired of being sad all the time, took a step back, and realized I do have a good life, with a lot of people who care about me.”
“While I obviously wouldn’t want to go through this again, this process has made me really feel like I’m stronger than I thought I ever could have been. Recovering myself, and then seeing Ava recover in a wheelchair…it was bad. But fortunately we had Creek, and each other. What really helped though was getting up and doing the physical work to recover. I didn’t take any pain pills, because I just wanted to get back closer to how I felt before.” Amy feels strongly about her mother, and the progress she has made. “Everything she’s been through, she’s the toughest woman I’ve ever met in my life.”
“I’m someone who only likes to be proud of myself after truly accomplishing something big, like signing to Iowa. Then this wreck happens, and I go back to square one. And since the accident, I haven’t really been proud of myself until I realized I don’t need to compare myself to anyone. I compare myself to where I was a year ago, a month ago, a day ago. My life restarted during the accident, so I have to be proud of myself for the small things I accomplish like grocery shopping and adulting, working out and shooting, doing yoga…I’m proud of myself now. It’s hard to do things in general, but especially after suffering a traumatic brain injury.”
Amy has a trip to London coming up with her sister in the coming months. She plans to enjoy the summer, and looks forward to, “Spending every minute I can in a pool. Being able to walk again is freeing, because I can make plans and be present, like when Iowa went to the Final Four, and keep up with Ava, my mom, and Creek. I’m looking forward to that after being cooped away for so long.”
Ava has plenty on her plate to keep her busy with the months and years ahead. “My short term goal is to finish my freshman year of college, and then get back and get better. I want to get better about my right hand and the right side of my body to know what they’re doing more. I’m planning to stay in Iowa over the summer for my physical therapy sessions.” Ava also has a YouTube channel (@AvaJones35), and hopes to start posting more frequently.
“I would tell others to keep pushing, don’t give up, don’t settle. Work hard to get where you want to be, or the best you can be. It may not be exactly where you want to be, but strive to be the best you can be.”
“I want to thank everybody from UofL and Lousiville who supported my family while we have been going through this. The doctors, nurses, therapists, caregivers…everyone. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, because I wouldn’t be where I’m at without each of you, and I wouldn’t have made the comeback that I’ve made without all of you pushing me and supporting me.”
Amy and Ava Jones.
Resilient. Hard-Working.
Trauma Survivors.
You can follow along and learn more about Ava’s journey on her YouTube channel, @AvaJones35.
