METAIRIE, La. — It's been nearly a month since Tyler Wehrlin was left maimed on the side of the road after a hit-and-run in Metairie.
He was on a first date at Rock-n-Sake, when he was crossing the street after dinner to head back to his car when he was hit by a white sedan and thrown into a light pole.
Wehrlin is now out of the hospital, to the surprise of his family and medical team, who expected his road to recovery to be lengthy. The crash left him with injuries including a skull fracture, brain hemorrhage, damage to his eye socket and cheekbone, and internal bleeding. His mother, Rachel McMahan, believed that her son would need many more surgeries in the future, and even set up a gofundme page to help pay for medical expenses.
Rock-n-Sake got involved as well, hosting a fundraiser to help Wehrlin and his family, which Wehrlin himself says was shocking to him.
"I really appreciate all the support I've gotten like from social media and obviously Rock-and-Sake, what's the word, I'm flabbergasted, that's a really big word, but that they actually made a whole dinner and a whole fundraiser for me," he said.
Though physically he looks worlds away from when he was in the hospital, Wehrlin still has a ways to go before he can say he's at 100%.
"I'm fine. The mental part is the hard part really cause I was already having mental problems beforehand, but now it's worse because my brain actually has bruises on it. But other than that everything else has been fine. Besides my foot I have a fracture from when I got hit," he stated.
As for the person who hit him, it seems that it may be difficult to find the culprit. At the time of his accident his mother said, "What person, what heartless person can leave a human on the side...he was a good boy."
Now authorities tell Wehrlin that the camera footage from the accident appears too blurry to accurately pinpoint the identity of the driver.
For now, Wehrlin is appreciative of the support he's gotten, and coming to terms with the fact that he's actually been in such a traumatic accident.
"It's actually funny because I didn't even know what happened. I woke up in the hospital I had no idea what happened. It's kind of crazy to me that it even happened," he said.
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