Doctors gave his family a grim prognosis about his recovery, including saying he might not ever eat or breathe on his own. Now, through hard work, the young man is walking with a walker and on his way to realizing his dream of playing ball again.

Torrian Poore, who played for his Knowledge Academy team before his injury, suffered a punctured lung, a cracked skull, a break in his leg, and various other serious injuries to his body after a car plowed into him as he walked to a store in his hometown. According to reports, the teen was taking a route down a roadway with no sidewalks on March 14, 2021, when he was struck by a vehicle at about 1 p.m. in the Nashville neighborhood of Antioch.

Local station WVTF reported that a police report stated the motorist recognized she hit “something.” She circled back to the scene and did not claim to be injured. Officers also did not see any signs of trauma on her part. The report also did not state if the driver was issued a citation, WVTF said.

The accident was horrific, leaving his family afraid for his life.

“I mean, just panic, hoping that he was not dead, that he was still here—that he could just continue to fight,” said the teen’s father, Tavares Poore.

WKRN reported Poore at one point had to be on a ventilator to sustain his breathing.

The convalescent teen was so banged up he spent most of his freshman year at Knowledge Academy in and out of the hospital, according to WTVF.

“He was unconscious for like a month and a half. He had TBI, extensive brain damage, cracked vertebrae, punctured lungs, and everything,” said Tavares Poore.

Today, Poore is shocking his doctors, family, and friends with his tremendous progress. The accident frightened the family but has shown them his resilience through his progress in therapy.

Source: ‘Nothing Can Stop Me’: Nashville Teen Who Doctors Thought Would Never Walk Again After Being Hit By a Car Is on His Feet Again, Determined to be a Basketball Coach

For 35 years, Joyce Watkins has maintained her innocence in the death of her 4-year-old great niece, for which she spent 27 years in prison.

On Jan. 12, the state of Tennessee finally acknowledged that she had been wrongly convicted, making Watkins the first Black woman – and only the third woman overall – to be exonerated by the state, CNN reports.

In June 1987, Watkins and her then boyfriend Charlie Dunn picked her great niece Brandi up from the Kentucky home of another aunt where the toddler had been living for two months. Nine hours later, after they had made their way back to Nashville, when she found the little girl unconscious, Watkins noticed blood in her underwear and bruising on her body.

Afro Puffs — Activate! Three-Year-Old’s Birthday Photos As Spider-Girl Goes Viral

She rushed Brandi to Nashville Memorial Hospital, where doctors found signs of severe vaginal injury and head trauma. She died the next day.

The signs of sexual assault were used to charge Dunn and Watkins with first-degree murder and aggravated rape. They were convicted and sent to prison in August 1988.

Watkins was released on parole 27 years later and had to have her name listed on Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry. Dunn, on the other hand, died in prison while awaiting parole.

Late last year, Watkins approached the Tennessee Innocence Project to help her clear her name as well as Dunn’s. In November, they filed an official request to have both convictions vacated.

“She just showed up at the office and said, ‘Let me tell you my story. I need your help’,” explained Jason Gichner, the Project’s senior legal counsel.

From there, the organization had the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office reopen the case. The DA’s Conviction Review Unit then proceeded to reexamine the evidence that had been used to convict Dunn and Watkins.

Source: 74-Year-Old Woman Wrongly Convicted Of Toddler’s Murder Exonerated After 35 Years