ATLANTA — Josh Dowd has come a long way.
He can get around using a walker, a cane and without help. He visits Dr. Ryan Cedermark at Neurosolution Center of Atlanta twice a week. Dowd also takes part in vision therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy.
"Two years ago, we weren’t sure he’d wake up," Dowd's partner, Colin Kelly, said. "The doctors said he wasn’t going to wake up, and if he did, he’d live in a nursing home the rest of his life.”
On July 11, 2021, Dowd was brutally beaten and found on some train tracks near Lakeshore Drive in Atlanta. He was bleeding from the head and barely breathing. The attack left him in a coma for nearly three weeks with a severe brain injury. While the case has grown cold for the Atlanta Police Department over the past two years, Kelly said he would focus on the progress made in Dowd's recovery.
"Josh is here with us, he pulled through, he's not some shell of himself," Kelly said. "He truly is the true, genuine, goofy, loving Josh. I’d love for there to be a break in the case, for someone to not be out at large. But right now, I just have to be grateful we have what we have.”
After spending time at Grady Hospital, the Shepherd Center and after five months of care under Cedermark, Dowd has been able to do activities like shower, make coffee and use the bathroom on his own.
“In a brain injury, there’s a huge energy crisis," Cedermark said. "So one of my goals was to help try and restore energy to his nervous system and to his brain."
This is accomplished with electrical stimulation, laser therapy and vibrational therapy along with his physical activity like walking, squats, and lunges, the doctor explained.
"Josh is like a walking billboard for how the brain can change for the positive," he said.
Cedermark praised Dowd's hardworking and fun-loving personality. The nurse practitioner said several more months of sensory stimulation, interaction with the environment and focusing to build cognition through balance will inch Dowd closer to normalcy and independence.
For Kelly, the present is nothing like the past. He said his love for Dowd has only grown during his recovery.
“It takes a long time to fill a bucket of sand one grain at a time, but eventually, as long as you’re patient and keep pushing and keep trying to go further and further, that bucket will fill up," Kelly said.
He said having hope isn't easy and comes with its own challenges.
“We’ve had a couple seizures along the way, we’ve had some falls, we’ve had some setbacks," Kelly said. "But every step of the way, we’ve had so much support in terms of prayers and well wishes. We’re going to get his life back, we’re going to fight for him until he gets to where he wants to be.”
Anyone interested in helping with Dowd's recovery can click here.