11-year-old Roy boy home from the hospital 45 days after being hit by car

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Jayson Stone, 11, returns home after a severe accident and miraculous recovery.
The Roy community celebrated his return, highlighting local support and resilience.
Jayson faces more surgeries but remains optimistic about enjoying summer activities with friends.

ROY — Just 45 days after a traumatic brain injury, a young man is home with his family.

Jayson Stone was hit by a car in a crosswalk back in April. Doctors told his family Jayson likely wouldn't survive the accident, but instead he is recovering rapidly and was discharged from the hospital on Friday.

On Saturday, Jayson and his family invited their friends and community members to celebrate this milestone with them at a local park.

Jodee Johnson, Jayson's mother, said the Roy community has rallied around their family during this difficult time. She talked about how the celebration on Saturday gave supporters the chance to meet her son.

"We just wanted give them an opportunity to meet him and see what their love and support actually accomplished," Johnson said.

Jayson played with his friends at the park Saturday, throwing a Nerf football and a soccer ball, all while wearing a protective helmet to protect his injury. Doctors told his family that this level of recovery would likely never come.

"It's one thing to actually know about miracles, and hear about miracles, but then to actually watch one unfold right in front of you is a completely different experience," said Johnson.

Jayson's friends were eager to describe their buddy; they called him funny, a class clown, playful and a troublemaker. Many visited him in the hospital over and over again.

"We were there every day. The first time, it was really sad," said Jayson's best friend Ledger. "But then I got used to it. It was way easier when he was awake instead of in the coma and stuff."

The Roy Fire Department joined in the celebration Saturday. Josh Gardner came to meet Stone; he was one of the medics who responded to the accident and helped load Stone into the ambulance.

Gardner remembers finding Jayson between two cars in the road and his team immediately jumping into action. He told KSL-TV that it's rare for first responders to learn what happens to their patients after they bring them to the hospital.

"Just knowing that we made an impact to help him in any way means a lot," Gardner said.

Jayson has a long road ahead of him, including another surgery next month. Doctors were able to preserve the fragment of skull they removed during his initial surgery, and they will puzzle-piece it back into his head to heal like any other bone break.

But Jayson said that's not going to mess with his summer plans, and he'll be ready to play basketball with his friends soon.

A GoFundMe* has been set up to help the Stone family with medical expenses.

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.