After a Childhood Car Accident and Coma, This 18-Year-Old Is Defying the Odds One Mile at a Time
After a childhood car accident and coma, this 18-year-old is defying the odds one mile at a time. Eleven years ago, taking a single step seemed almost impossible for Bensten Schone. Today, he runs miles.
The 18-year-old high school senior from McLean, Virginia, is preparing for cross-country season and hoping to continue running in college. But every mile beneath Bensten's feet carries a story that began on a snowy January day when he was only 6 years old.
Childhood Car Accident Leaves 6-Year-Old Fighting for His Life
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Bensten had been sledding with his sister when he flew down a steep hill headfirst toward the street below. His sister saw a car coming and screamed. “I couldn’t hear her, and I didn’t see it coming,” Bensten said. The car struck him head-on.
His sister ran for help while Bensten lay unconscious on the snowy road. He was airlifted to Inova Fairfax Hospital with a fractured skull and severe traumatic brain injury.
“It was life or death,” former nurse Deborah Kelley said. “He could’ve died from his injuries.” Doctors placed Bensten in a medically induced coma for more than two weeks. He survived, but when he woke, an entirely different race began.
Doctors Weren’t Sure He Would Ever Walk Again
Bensten had lost the ability to do things most of us never think twice about. He had to relearn how to speak, pick up objects, use the bathroom, and stand. And walk. “They didn’t think I would walk again,” he said.
His first vivid memory after the accident is being strapped into a harness attached to a large rehabilitation machine. One step was hard. So he took one. Then another.
Years of rehabilitation followed. Bensten eventually returned to school, though the brain injury left him with learning challenges and limitations that continue today. But when contact sports weren't an option, Bensten discovered running.
Teen Defies the Odds and Becomes a Cross-Country Runner
The little boy who once needed a harness to practice taking steps started getting faster. Then he started running farther.
Now, the same young man doctors feared might never walk has an offer to run at the collegiate level.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Bensten said. “There was a time when taking a few steps was daunting.”
Perhaps the best description of his journey comes from Bensten himself.
“I love a comeback story,” he said. “I wanted to prove the odds wrong. When they said they didn’t think I could walk again, I was determined to walk — and run.” And he was willing to put in the time and the hours behind the story, too. And somehow, this story gets even sweeter.
His Comeback Story Could Become a Calling to Help Others
Bensten is considering becoming a physical therapist so he can someday help another patient the way his care team helped him. His older sister became a nurse at the very hospital where her little brother once lay in a coma.
What nearly broke this family became part of how they learned to help put others back together. Bensten doesn't want the accident to define him. And perhaps that is the most beautiful part of his story. God is bigger than the worst thing that has happened to us.
The chapter that looks like an ending might simply be the place where He begins writing something we cannot yet imagine. Bensten once fought for a single step. Now he is taking life one mile at a time.
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“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary.” Isaiah 40:31
WATCH: After a Childhood Car Accident and Coma, This 18-Year-Old Is Defying the Odds One Mile at a Time
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h/t: Today
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/TODAY
Originally published October 05, 2026.
