For a while, it was touch and go. Sage Thornton Blue Raven Gau’s family wasn’t sure whether the 23-year-old Special Olympics athlete would emerge from a vegetative state.
The Mankato man did, however, and his stepdad proclaimed, “We got our Sage back.”
“Last Thursday he could talk again,” said Gau’s stepdad Thomas Blue Raven in an interview Tuesday. “We knew his brain was back. Everyday he is getting a little bit better, though we keep finding more injuries.”
Gau was riding an electric scooter near his home in Mankato’s Highland Park on July 12 when he was hit by a car. His injuries were extensive, and he was airlifted that night to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.
His sister Bambi Blue Raven reports via a Gofundme page for Gau that he sustained serious injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, skull fracture, broken neck vertebrae, eight broken ribs, broken right shoulder, right elbow compound fracture, broken bones in his left hand, lacerations to his face, multiple facial fractures, road rash on his face, trunk and limbs, two broken toes on his left foot and a broken leg — the last of which was just discovered this week.
Gau is autistic and is involved with Leisure Education for Exceptional People, or LEEP, which is a local organization that serves people with disabilities. He is known for being an active, social, athletic LEEP member, and he had plans to start LEEP softball later this month.
“Sage has a great spirit and he really loves his Special Olympics and making friends,” said Lisa Wojcik, LEEP executive director. “He’s super social. He loves sports. He loves people. He loves to be around our LEEP participants and coaches and he’s expanded himself and tried new things. I’m proud of him for stepping out and trying new things he hadn’t done in the past.
“We wish him the best,” she said. “Any time something happens to one of our people in our LEEP community, we try to rally around them. We made him some get-well cards. We encourage people to rally around him, and do whatever it takes for him to get to a place where he’s on his way to a strong recovery, which I know he is but it sounds like it’ll be a little while here.”
Gau is also a member of the Santee Dakota Nation of Nebraska and is a sports fan. In his time as an athlete, he was recently named MVP at the state championship for LEEP Mankato’s Special Olympics basketball team, where he had a leading score of 23 points. He also placed in state for the Special Olympics for deadlifting, powerlifting and squats, his sister said.
He lives with his stepdad Thomas Blue Raven and mother Mollie Blue Raven in the Highland Park neighborhood. He’s immensely loyal, Bambi Blue Raven said, and will “be your personal hype man. He will stand up for you and give you the shirt off his back.
“He is just so loving,” she said. “When Sage knows you, he’ll protect you and love you and stand up for you. You’re aces for him. He’s your best friend. That’s just him.”