Boy who saved sister from plane crash was told he wouldn't walk again — his mind-boggling recovery surprised doctors

Dealing with life-changing injuries as a kid is no easy feat. But a 10-year-old, Andre Howard, had to do just that when he got injured while trying to protect his sister from the debris of a plane crash. He was told that he might never walk again after a piece of metal was stuck in his head due to the crash. However, to everyone's surprise, he made an extraordinary recovery a few months later that left the doctors in shock, per WPVI News.

Howard was in a car with his father, younger brother and sister when a medical jet crashed in Northeast Philadelphia. It was carrying six people and crashed near Cottman and Roosevelt Boulevard. The crash killed all six people on board as well as two people on the ground and left several others injured. When the medevac jet crashed, it showered flames and debris on the homes and vehicles nearby, including the one the family was riding in, per WYFF News. The dad had picked up his three children from school on January 31 and took them to Dunkin' Donuts for a snack as a part of their weekly family ritual when the incident happened. "A really loud boom and we saw a fireball that covered the whole entire sky," the dad recounted, per CNN.

The dad quickly tried to put his truck in reverse to avoid the flames as he saw everything around him on fire. In the meantime, his son told his sister to get down and jumped on top of her to protect her from the debris. When the dad turned around, his 7-year-old son and his daughter were okay, but Howard had a piece of metal lodged in the right side of his head. The dad tried to stop the bleeding with a cloth as the kid was rushed to the hospital. The medical team told them he could have impaired vision and might never walk again. He was later transferred to a children's hospital in Philadelphia.

The first thing he asked after regaining consciousness was about his sister, "Did I save her from the crash?" The dad expressed, "Andre is my superhero. As a dad, I've always instilled in them to protect your sister when daddy is not around. And I'm grateful to have a son like Andre." Howard spent over a month at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and went through multiple surgeries and tests, per WPVI News. "By the time we got to CHOP, they told us he was going to be paraplegic because he had no feeling," the boy's mom, Lawshawn Hamiel, said. Howard recounted, "I just saw a big fire and my dad told me to protect my little sister, and I tried to jump on her."

At the time, he had a bad headache after his injury. "It felt like I had to throw up and I had a bad headache." But after being in the hospital for quite some time, he started to make a recovery, even though it seemed daunting. "When they first told me [I wouldn't walk], I was sad. But now I'm not. I can move everything." His spirits were lifted by visits from his loved ones and Eagles wide receiver AJ Brown. "I think it's the new me. Because I got better at my game and basketball," he told the outlet after his recovery. Howard's recovery process included relearning how to walk. Now he is working to get back his fine motor skills on the left side of his body and doing tasks like brushing his teeth and tying his shoelaces. His takeaway from the incident was, "You have to work hard and always protect people."