Brazos County neighborhood marks a decade of supporting former student with traumatic brain injury

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – This weekend residents in the Whispering Oaks neighborhood near Easterwood Airport in Brazos County will again gather to honor and celebrate a former student who was critically injured 10 years ago by a drunk driver.

Philip Ormston spent six weeks in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury in the crash on May 17, 2014, on Highway 380 in North Texas.

His odds of recovering were slim, but over the past decade, with rehabilitation and plenty of prayers, Philip has progressed in his recovery but remains in a wheelchair and has difficulty with verbal communication.

When Philip moved to the Brazos Valley for school, he met Joe Northrop at a local gym and developed a friendship. From there, Joe introduced Philip to his neighbors who would hire Philip to complete yard work and other chores as Philip looked for ways to supplement his education costs.

“He was just a great kid and he was looking for work to help his parents pay his way through college, and I hired him to plant some trees and do some other work around the house,” said Northrop. “I was so impressed with him that I got him jobs with several of my neighbors and he became a neighborhood favorite.”

Following the crash, Philp, now 36, was moved back to North Texas to be under the care of his family, but Joe and the rest of his neighborhood have stayed in touch and each year they gather to raise money for Philip and his family.

“As soon as we found out my initial thought was to get those neighbors who knew him together and try to do what we could to help Philip with his family.”

In the first year of their fundraising event, the neighborhood raised a couple of thousand dollars and each year the event has grown. Last year, $47,000 was collected and shared with the family who said they would likely use that money to help upgrade an aging van.

Northrop says watching Philip’s journey has shown him how exhausting and expensive the recovery can be both for a TBI patient and their family. That’s why he and his neighbors now want to expand their efforts.

“We’ve kind of come to a bit of a crossroads and decided that if Philip is so in need of what we can do, then maybe we can create a 501(c)3 charitable corporation and help other young people undergoing similar problems.”

Northrop notes that the group wants to focus on long-term patient recovery, seeing that money and other resources may become thinly stretched years after a patient’s initial injury.

“Philip is very lucky he comes from a family who cares deeply about him and has never wavered in their support, but not everybody has that kind of family, and some people have no family at all to fall back on,” said Northrop, who is a U.S. Army veteran.

“We didn’t have a lot of combat when I served from 1972 to 1997,” he said, “but now I know it’s a huge problem for younger men and women who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq.” It’s why Northrop has spent time learning more about TBIs and how patients are treated over the past decade.

The neighborhood’s next gathering is this Saturday, May 18th, and will include a car show, music, and food. While the event is not open to the general public, Northrop and the neighborhood welcome financial donations and others to follow Philip’s journey online.

Donations can be made to Honest John’s Texas Legends on Venmo at @TEXASLEGENDS or checks can be mailed to 9633 Whispering Ridge, College Station, Texas 77845. All donations are tax-deductible and receipts can be provided.

“Honest John” is the nickname for John Faust, a friend who invited Northrop to stay at his place when he traveled to North Texas to visit Philip. Before his passing, John gifted a 1980 Seville to Northrop that was refurbished and then sold as a fundraising item for Philip. It fetched nearly $30,000.

Northrop says their mission to expand will fall under the Honest John’s Texas Legends umbrella, in honor of John Faust.

Philip does plan to attend this year’s event.