Former Franklin Regional standout Hudock recovering nicely after scary motorcycle accident

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, August 25, 2024 | 4:17 PM

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He doesn’t remember much from the night he almost died, but Ayden Hudock uses words such as “lucky” and “blessed” a lot more since he wrecked his motorcycle.

From what those who reconstructed the accident scene have told him, both of those words are appropriate.

It was May 25 when Hudock, a former Franklin Regional football standout, was riding his motorcycle home from the graduation party of his friend, Norwin alum Jackson Pons.

It was getting dark, and it was raining when Hudock reportedly swerved to miss someone backing out of their driveway on Harrison City/Export Road.

“That is what they tell me,” said Hudock, 18, who has been in a wheelchair since July 3 when he came home from Forbes Hospital after multiple surgeries. “I was like 5 minutes from my house. It was raining and my tires were bald.”

Hudock slammed into a telephone pole and fell off the bike, which was mangled. He was coherent but groggy. His helmet, although cracked into pieces, did its job.

“If I didn’t have a helmet on, I wouldn’t have had a chance,” he said. “A woman who was driving behind me stopped and called the ambulance. I was talking, I guess, and gave her some information. Her name is Jennifer, but that is all we know.”

Jennifer was the guardian angel Hudock needed. She came, helped and left before the family could get her full name.

With the weather too dubious for a medical helicopter, Hudock was rushed to Forbes. There it was revealed he had a fractured femur in his left leg, his left arm was broken in two places, his left index finger was cracked, his collarbone was broken and his spleen had to be removed.

Surgeons did a bone graft on his hip, taking tissue and applying it to his leg.

“All of the damage was on my left side, but most of the damage to the helmet was on the right side,” said Hudock, who wears a sling and has pins in his hand. His left arm remained numb a month after surgery.

“I’m lucky. I’m blessed.”

The realization of what happened didn’t hit Hudock until he woke up in a lonely hospital bed.

“I opened my eyes and saw a (football banner) of myself on the wall,” he said. “I thought I was dead. I started freaking out. I was in shock.”

His mother used Facebook to ask potential blood donors to help out. Support poured in.

Hudock, who started riding motorcycles with his cousins as a young teenager, said he had his new bike for about a year. He said he always wears a helmet when he rides.

“I had driven that road hundreds of times,” he said. “If you’re going to ride, don’t ride alone, especially at night or if you know bad weather is coming. You don’t realize how lucky you are to get up every day.”

Now, he is on a road to recovery.

After his surgeries and step-down, Hudock came home and has been doing physical therapy there before out-patient therapy begins.

A serpentine scar from surgery and stitches run through the middle of a tattoo on his leg.

He was in the intensive care unit when Franklin Regional had graduation, so he did not attend. Roman Sarnic, his best friend and former quarterback who threw used to throw the big-play receiver passes, walked for him and accepted his diploma on his behalf.

“As soon as I heard it happened, I rushed down to the hospital to see him, but I wasn’t allowed in the room so that was tough at first,” Sarnic said. “But I went to see him as soon as I could, and he looked so well from what I thought he was gonna look like.

“He’s held his head high since it’s happened. He talks about how he can’t wait to start lifting with me again and to start walking with me.”

Hudock had his graduation party Aug. 17. He said he didn’t want people to see him in a wheelchair.

“It felt good to see everybody,” he said.

Hudock decided to get a job instead of playing college football, but he said wonders about what playing at the next level might be like.

“I miss it,” he said. “I miss it 20 times more now with this happening. I still watch a lot of (old game) film.

“This has been tougher physically than mentally for me. I am not depressed or anything because I have so many friends and people who care about me.”

Sarnic works for his family’s tile and carpeting business, and Hudock had planned to start working with him this summer.

“It was a pretty bumpy first couple of days after it happened,” Sarnic said. “But I knew he would heal quick and nice because I know he is one of the toughest people I’ve ever met.”

Despite the accident and its effects, Hudock plans to ride again.

First, though, he will try to walk again.

“I am not scared of bikes now or anything,” he said. “This hasn’t traumatized me from motorcycles now. It’s just you realize you have a chance to go early. That was a scary one.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional