Man bit by horse learning to speak again: 'I don't remember the old voice'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Horses are a way of life in Acres Homes.

Ivory Lindsey has had them since he was young and he has the scars to prove it.

"I've been kicked in the stomach. Four surgeries. Lower and upper intestine busted. My left knee broke, shoulder out of place. Four fingers broke. I've had a lot of horse injuries," he said.

But as he put his horse, Joe Joe, up last month, the horse next door came after him with no warning.

"When he bit my throat, once I finally got loose from him and I got up off the ground, big clumps of blood were falling on my boot," he said. "I reached to grab my throat and I didn't. I got scared because I knew he had pulled it out."

Someone who saw what happened drove him to Ben Taub Hospital where trauma surgeon Dr. Rob Todd worked to save his life.

"When we think about trauma, we always talk about the ABCs and A stands for airway," Dr. Todd said. "And the first thing we do is maintain or secure your airway. This gentleman had a very tenuous airway when he got here. If we weren't able to get the airway, he definitely would've succumbed to his injuries."

Lindsey said Dr. Todd is the first thing he remembers from Ben Taub.

"I remember waking up and seeing a doctor standing over me," he said. "I asked him was I going to make it and he nodded his head with tears in his eyes."

Dr. Nadia Mohyuddin worked to reconstruct his throat.

"He appeared, even though he was on the breathing machine, that he was going to have some long term issues related to both speech and swallowing," she said.

Dr. Mohyuddin said the most severe damage was within millimeters of Lindsey's jugular. He used a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe, but it was removed after just a few months.

She said she's shocked at how quickly he's recovered. The doctors and Lindsey reunited on the anniversary of his injury.

"He walked into the clinic talking and laughing, cracking jokes with all our nurses, cracking jokes with all our physicians in the room," Mohyuddin said.

"I don't remember the old voice. But I thank God for this one," Lindsey said.

One would think he would've given horses a break after nearly losing his life, but Lindsey said the day he got out of the hospital his first stop was to check on Joe Joe.

He added he'll always have a love for horses, he just keeps his eye on other people's horses now.

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