CLEVELAND, Ohio — A young man is now fighting for his life after a crash left him with a brain injury. The community continues to give him and his family the strength they need to keep fighting.
Nicole Schmidt and her husband Tom adopted Manye when he was just 10 years old, and over the past decade, he's quickly become a light in their home.
"He's just really welcoming and kind and just gives people the benefit of the doubt. He's really generous, and he loves the Lord," Nicole said.
But, one night, around 2:30 a.m., Nicole got a call that would change their lives forever.
"The first thing that they said to me was, 'We have your son, and we need you to get here right away and be prepared; his face is really hurt, and he's intubated,'" Nicole said.
On March 22, a little after 10 p.m., Manye was driving to work down Chester Avenue when he was hit by another vehicle and crashed into a phone pole.
"The telephone pole came all the way through the passenger side of his car; the passenger seat is practically gone. They had to extract him from the vehicle," Nicole said.
Though Manye survived, his injuries were extensive, including internal bleeding, loss of sight in one eye, fractures to his face and a traumatic brain injury.
"He has something called expressive aphasia, which means he hears you, knows what we're saying, he knows what he wants to say in response to us, and then when the words come out, they come out jumbled," Nicole said.
From there, the journey to recovery has been challenging; some days, Manye won't say a word, while others, he'll make significant progress. One moment that brought the Schmidts hope was when they realized Manye could sing, and he sang every word of a Christian worship song with his mom.
"It was so beautiful and so hopeful," said Nicole.
To keep their strength, their family has leaned on faith and community, which has overwhelmed them with support. From their church which brought meals, to strangers from around the world sending prayers and hundreds of messages.
"So much so that it became at one point, like, just hard to even respond because we were getting so many messages," said Nicole.
Along with friends like Emily Huestis, who has known the Schmidts for years but lives an hour and a half away. She started a GoFundMe to help with the medical bills.
"Tom and Nicole are givers, they have been serving their communities, wherever they've called home. They give and give and give and so it was very easy for me to reach out to some mutual friends." Emily continued, "I initially set the goal at like $85,000 knowing that Manye has a traumatic brain injury and that there's a lot of medical expenses that go into that and also other expenses that aren't cataloged on a hospital bill."
So, while they don't know what Manye's future holds, Nicole knows Manye isn't fighting alone.
"We've been told that with a brain injury, nothing's considered to be permanent until about a year and a half later," she said.
Just yesterday, they celebrated Manye's 20th birthday, and his family said he was smiling and laughing as they played games.
"His full name is Manyazewal, which is Ethiopian, and his name means 'hope will hold him.' So, in this time that we've been in, it's been really meaningful," Nicole said.
If you would like to donate to the GoFundMe, CLICK HERE.
