It is apparent the beaming, infectious smile that shines upon Joshua Valdez’ visitors – be they strangers, friends or his mother – that the hit-and-run victim is well on his way to recovery from a traumatic brain injury and other injuries he suffered after he was hit by a car while walking in Morgan Hill.
Valdez returned to his home in east-central Morgan Hill Aug. 16 after spending two months in two different hospitals – first San Jose Regional Medical Center and then Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. The first few weeks after the accident, in which Valdez was hit and left on the side of Butterfield Boulevard by a passing motorist who has since pleaded not guilty to felony hit and run, Valdez was comatose.
Valdez, who will turn 23 on Sept. 18, currently gets around in a wheelchair and his memory of recent events going back several months is still hazy. But his family is equally amazed at his speedy recovery thus far considering the severity of his injuries, and unsurprised at the stubborn will he has exhibited throughout his life and which carried him back home this soon.
“He’s always been a strong-willed person,” said Josh’s cousin Joseph Marquez, who visited him frequently in the hospital and has helped his aunt – Josh’s mother Stacie Valdez – take care of him. “He has that strength that he’s always used to push through everything. He’s always the tough guy.”
At Josh’s home in Morgan Hill one recent afternoon, where he and his mother rent a room that is now decorated with handmade posters wishing him a speedy recovery, “Joshie” as his friends call him, displayed a quick wit in response to questions about his health, and an eagerness to fight through ongoing therapy sessions to recover.
When asked what he looks forward to most about being able to walk again, he replied wryly, while laughing, “Being able to walk again.”
Josh’s doctors said when he was ready to go home, the only way he could do so is if there were no steps at home and if he had 24-7 care, Stacie said. Stacie gladly accommodated, and she doesn’t foresee going back to her job at the Morgan Hill Unified School District until after Josh has made adequate improvements. They have lived in the room since a couple months before Josh’s accident.
Stacie added the two try to get out of the house as often as they can, visiting Josh’s cousin and aunt, Jody Adams, in Gilroy, or his friends at Christmas Hill Park. One day last week some friends took him on a boat ride on Anderson Lake. They went to the Santa Cruz wharf a few weeks ago with Josh’s twin brother and sister, though he only vaguely remembers that trip.
Josh and Stacie go to three weekly sessions of therapy – one each of physical, occupational and speech therapy – at Valley Medical Center. The speech therapy, Stacie explained, is intended mainly to help him regain his ability to swallow water, which was also affected by his brain injury. He is getting better at drinking other fluids and eating solid foods.
He also does daily leg exercises at home to regain strength and mobility in his knee and foot. He is still in some pain from the injuries suffered in the accident.
“My neck is a little stressed out,” Josh said. In his right knee – the “point of impact” in the June 16 accident, Stacie said – the meniscus, which is part of the cartilage, is damaged. He wears a brace on his right leg to keep the injured limb stable until it recovers.
Josh suffered numerous bone fractures in the accident, including a broken leg, broken pelvis, bruised lungs and two fractured shoulder blades.
He was hit while walking home by himself late at night, when he crossed Butterfield Boulevard at San Pedro Avenue. Police found him at about 1 a.m. unconscious but breathing.
Hospital staff and officers who responded to the accident scene have told Josh that they found him within “the golden hour” that follows a traumatic brain injury, after which survival is on the line.
“Thankfully, I lived through it,” Josh said. “The hospital thought I was going to be there four to six months.”
His last memory before the accident is about eight months prior, when he was walking home from a friend’s house with another friend, Josh Gardner, who Josh calls “Panda.” Ironically, he had been walking home with the same friend just before the June 16 accident. The two parted ways that night near the intersection of San Pedro Avenue and Church Street.
He doesn’t remember anything from his time at San Jose Regional, but vaguely remembers his stay at Valley Medical Center, Stacie added. Josh, a Gilroy High School graduate, also doesn’t remember moving back to Morgan Hill with his mother, from Gilroy, just a couple months before the accident. Years ago before the Gilroy move, they had lived in Morgan Hill.
Everything about being back at home is better than being in the hospital, Josh said.
“Not having to talk to doctors all the time is nice, and hanging out with my friends,” he said. “And seeing how the world’s changed the last two months.” (“It’s summer,” he added when pressed to identify some of those changes.)
His mother added that Josh “smiles all the time” now that he’s at home and able to visit his family and friends.
“He laughs at all my jokes that are really stupid,” Stacie laughed. “He gets frustrated sometimes because he tries to explain something to me, and I’m not getting it.” Sometimes he asks his mother for a beer, only because he knows he can’t have one.
“I’ve gotta try,” Josh laughed.
His cousin, Marquez, 21, has helped Stacie take care of Josh since he returned home, mainly helping with transportation and assisting with daily tasks. Marquez’ mother – Jody Adams, Stacie’s sister – has helped Josh’s mother with ongoing legal and medical issues surrounding the accident.
The two cousins grew up together, Marquez said.
“He’s always been self-sufficient, and been very protective of his mom,” Marquez said. “There’s been loss in the family before. He’s always that one person that everyone can go to talk to. He always has the right thing to say.”
Neither Josh nor Marquez wanted to comment on the driver who is accused of hitting him and failing to stop to help. Sandra Arias, 28 of Morgan Hill, is accused of felony hit-and-run in relation to the accident, and has pleaded not guilty. She will next appear in court Sept. 18 at South County Courthouse.
“When I learned he got hit, it was a low blow,” Marquez said. “(Josh) is someone who would give the shirt off his back for anybody. It’s hard.”
