Aggie Spirit Helps Don Mathews Overcome Brain Injury To Graduate From Texas A&M

They said it couldn’t be done. Specifically, they said Texas A&M University student Don Mathews couldn’t do it.

“They” were the medical personnel who attended Mathews following a brain injury suffered when he was attacked by a trio of party-crashers, and “it” is graduating from college.

“He is now going to graduate Aug. 10 from the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences,” says Kim E. Dooley, professor and associate dean for academic operations with the college. “I thought about how much of a miracle it is that he’s alive, much less graduating with a degree. His story really represents a lot of what the Aggie Spirit is all about.”

In September 1998, Mathews, from Huntsville, was busy enjoying life while attending Sam Houston State University. Mathews and his date had just left a party celebrating his 21^stbirthday when a group from out of town crashed the party. After being forced to leave, they caught Mathews and the girl as they were getting in the car and decided to take their anger out on him. They beat him so badly that the emergency room doctor in Huntsville, a family friend, didn’t recognize him.

“The only way I could tell it was Don was because the bloody shirt nearby was the one I had bought him for his birthday,” said Regina Mathews, his mother. She says her family and Don’s friends never stopped praying for him.

The doctors at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston gave him a 50-50 chance of survival and then said: “What you see is what you’ll get. He will probably be a vegetable for the rest of his life.” After reviving him when his heart stopped, Mathews was in a coma for three weeks.

When he finally came out of the coma, he began the long road back. After a year and a half in the hospitals and rehabilitation centers, Mathews made slow progress but was determined to come to Texas A&M. “At no time did he deviate from wanting to go to Texas A&M,” his mother adds.

He succeeded in becoming an Aggie in 2005 and he initially majored in psychology. The short-term memory loss caused by his injury made test taking in a particular class, quite difficult because of the volume of material per test. He used brain retraining and memory techniques throughout his studies, but still had to battle health issues such as depression, common to traumatic brain injury sufferers, while completing his classes. Regina recalls that the correct combination of medications finally reduced the depression.

Mathews decided he needed to change his major, but that created more problems. Finally, with the help of Assistant Dean Ben Welch of Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, he was able to transfer to the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication (ALEC).

“The department is a very caring group,” Mathews’ mother says. “I hate to think what not being able to go to Texas A&M would have done to Don. The people at ALEC offer their support and gather together and work to help each student succeed and that’s just what Don did – succeed.”

She says she believes that her son’s survival was because of prayer and that God has a purpose now for Don’s life. Through his time at Texas A&M, Don has been active in his church and has worked with Bill Glass Ministries. Two of his attackers are still in prison and the third one has since died. Regina says because his refusal to give up led to him surviving what many others have not, Mathews is often asked to speak to college and church groups, inmates and the homeless. Don is such a popular speaker, he is often asked to come back and speak again.

She says her son has had a positive impact on many people since his injury. “After being told his chances of survival were slim, many of his friends gathered around his bed to pray. Since that time, I often hear from their parents about how the experience turned them back toward God.”

After graduation, Don Mathews hopes to attend a seminary and become a minister. In the meantime, he is looking for a job where he can be a positive influence on others. He says he will continue helping young people realize that life can change drastically in just seconds and when that happens, you have to trust in God, rely on family and friends and hang on to that never-give-up Aggie Spirit.