When Katie Hart woke up, her body was twisted. She couldn’t breathe and lacked the strength to push herself up.
The 2016 blue BMW in which she was a passenger, along with two of her Brandeis softball teammates, was upside down.
“I tried to stay calm, and I didn't make a noise or anything, but I heard my friends screaming,” Hart said. “I thought I was going to die.”
Moments earlier Hart, who will be a senior at Brandeis this year, and her teammates were enjoying a much-needed break from Advanced Placement exams, at Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers.
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As they left Freddy's, the driver noticed she was in a turn only lane and needed to get over. In her attempt to merge left, another driver cut her off and pushed her off the road. She lost control of the vehicle and it swerved and hit a tree.
Then it plummeted 30-feet down an embankment off La Cantera Parkway.
Hart regained consciousness a few minutes after the fall, having suffered a concussion.
“I (was) lying there with my eyes open, and when I was finally able to breathe, it was just like immediate pain in my back and in my chest,” Hart said. “My friend pulled me out of the car through a window that was broken. My back got all cut up and I sat down, and then I called my mom, and I was like, my back is broken.”
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The road to recovery
Chris Hart, Katie’s father, knew something was wrong when he saw the missed call.
“I came down(stairs) and I saw the phone and there's something about the time of the day and I knew in my gut, something was wrong,” he said. “Her phone literally located by the mall where that ravine is, and I started driving over there because there was no reason to be there at the time of the call.”
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Hart said within a few minutes, a multitude of police and ambulances arrived at the scene. The medics placed her on a stretcher to ensure spinal stability.
The 16-year-old Hart, who had been in the back seat and not wearing her seatbelt, was taken to the hospital by first responders to the scene. The driver and other passenger had been in the front and wearing seat belts. They were both escorted to the hospital later by their parents.
The initial hours at the hospital proved arduous. A neck brace restricted Hart’s her movement. Her and her parents waited five hours without painkillers while awaiting X-ray results.
The X-rays revealed three spinal fractures and a broken sternum.
“I thought I wasn't gonna be able to play sports again or like even walk because it was such intense pain,” Hart said.
After spending two nights in the hospital, Hart was told surgery wouldn’t be necessary. The doctors believed she could regain her strength through rehabilitation.
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Upon arriving at her mother's house from the hospital, Hart realized she faced a lengthy journey of mental and physical recovery. Her initial mental hurdle involved remaining calm while being in a car again.
A few days after returning from the hospital, Katie and Chris went to pick up her brother and his friends. During the journey, Katie noticed debris on the highway, fearing her dad would hit it.
“He looked at me and he was like, ‘Don't say that,’” Katie Hart said. “And I just started crying immediately because it was my first time in a car since the accident where I was awake. And I just felt nervous, I was just shaken up a lot.”
For the initial month following the accident, Hart used a breathing machine ten times a day. The machine required a tube to be inserted into her mouth, facilitating extended breaths rather than the short ones she had grown accustomed to. She was cautioned that constant shallow breathing could lead to her lungs collapsing.
“At first, I thought it was gonna be my back,” Hart said. “That was the hardest because that was the immediate pain I felt, but it turned out it was more my chest.”
During those early months, she slept on the couch at both her mom's and dad's houses due to increased pain when sleeping in bed. She relied on a cane for mobility.
“I'm definitely lucky,” Hart said. “I know I got worse injuries than my friends, but I easily could have died if I like landed just like an inch off or something and could have broken my spine completely.”
Putting in the work
Despite a challenging summer, Hart couldn't help but think about returning to sports for the upcoming school year. Despite not having run since the car accident, she was determined to participate in offseason basketball workouts.
“I took it slow for sure,” Hart said. “I didn't do like suicides yet because it was too fast paced. We would go on the track and run, which was mostly long distance, and then we'd go to the weight room. I couldn't do anything in the weight room.”
Before the girls basketball season in November, setbacks delayed Hart's return to the court. She fell ill, causing her to miss a week of practice, and upon her return, she suffered a concussion during basketball practice, further impeding her progress. Altogether, she missed around four weeks of practice.
“I thought it was over, especially when I first started,” Hart said. “I think I took like two or three shots, and I air-balled all three of them in a row and I was like, ‘I'm not gonna be good anymore.’”
However, despite self-doubts, she persisted and became the team's backup center.
Throughout basketball season, Hart worked with her basketball coach and one of Brandeis' trainers. During practice, she sometimes had to step away from practice to focus on training with the school's trainer.
If she was going to play softball at the level she was accustomed to, she was going to need a lot of help.
Hart's journey in softball began during seventh grade when she attended some offseason camps and met her softball coach, Maricela Bissaro. She continued to hone her skills as a pitcher, making the junior varsity team in high school. By her sophomore year, Hart established herself as one of Brandeis’ top two pitchers.
Hart had a 5.98 ERA with 20 strikeouts and allowed 100 hits in 15 appearances for the Broncos.
“The past couple of years, she has just become one of our go to pitchers,” Bissaro said. “She’s very steady and very composed and has gotten us through a lot of tough games over the past two years.”
Entering her junior year, though, Bissaro recognized Hart's ongoing recovery wouldn’t be easy.
“The biggest thing for me is just having that open line of communication with her,” Bissaro said. “Like slowly bringing her back into softball shape as much as I can, which is hard after basketball season because she jumps right back into it. But just making sure that I check in on her every day and make sure that she can be honest with me.”
Pitching didn't commence until right before softball season due to Hart's anticipation of enduring pain.
“I was really nervous just to start throwing,” Hart said. “Not because I felt like I was gonna be in pain. I just didn't want to see how bad it was gonna be.”
Finding her future
After the game, Hart said in the team bus and cried.
The Broncos had traveled to Houston for a softball tournament early last season, and it was Hart’s first real test — to see if she had healed, to see if she could still pitch.
She could.
"I had eight strikeouts, which surprised me because I wasn't expecting that," Hart shared. "I pitched the entire game. I cried on the bus afterward because I thought I would struggle since I had only started pitching two weeks prior due to my back injuries."
As the season progressed, Hart's body improved, although Bissaro still noticed when she played through back pain or had trouble breathing.
“I have a really good read on Katie and can tell when something's bothering her or she's not 100 percent,” Bissaro said.
With her physical condition improving, Hart's performance on the field also improved. She concluded the 2023 season with a team-best 4.51 ERA, recording 53 strikeouts in 17 appearances.
"I think she became significantly more effective on the mound, and I believe it stems from her dedication to coming back and refusing to let her injury or the accident define her high school season," Bissaro said.
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Following the conclusion of the softball season, Hart received an invitation to pitch in the annual Texas Select All-Star game. It was during this time, she began receiving coaching from Makayla Cook, her personal pitching coach.
Cook is assisting Hart in developing an assortment of pitches — breaking ball, screwball, dropball, changeup and curveball. By diversifying her pitch selection, Cook believes Hart can gain more effectively deceive batters.
Cook was also quick to note that Hart's velocity has increased to 57 miles per hour — and increase of five miles per hour compared to her junior season.
“I can already see how those batters are going to have trouble reacting to (her new pitches),” Bissaro said. …“I can absolutely see her playing at the next level. It's a matter of where she wants to go. I know that any college would be lucky to have her. The sky is the limit for her.”
