Students at Ottumwa High School honored one of their own today.
Ottumwa High School junior, Austin Brown, is the first recipient of the “Bulldog Tough” award. He was honored at the school’s first pep assembly of the year in front of the entire student body.
Austin was involved in a two-vehicle car accident on August 31, 2014 on Cliffland Road, east of Ottumwa. He was airlifted to Mercy Medical in Des Moines in critical condition. He sustained three critical brain injuries, a collapsed lung, a damaged spleen, hair line fractures of his pelvis, a broken left femur and was put in a medically induced coma, along with being on a ventilator.
“This is really an important moment for our school,” Principal Hanson said to the student body. He described Austin as a person who demonstrates "perseverance and grit and never giving up and always keeping a positive attitude towards things and just being a positive impact on other people, that’s who is going to be getting this [award] today.”
The award was kept secret from Austin, who was brought out on stage after Hanson announced his name. The student body chanted “Austin, Austin, Austin!”
Austin’s parents and a grandmother also attended the pep assembly. Austin’s mother, Tiesha Campbell, shared that “walking and talking” are their biggest goals. He spends one to two hours daily on physical therapy and works with a tutor nightly. “This means the world to us,” she said. “It means the world to him because he still has everyone behind him and that is what he needs. “
Watch YouTube video, courtesy of Ottumwa Post.
