A traumatic injury that left Damarion Allen paralyzed from the chest down and his subsequent 80-day hospital stay were only the first in a string of cascading disasters for the Columbus teenager.
Since Damarion left Franklin County’s juvenile jail on a stretcher in May 2023, he has survived one life-threatening medical complication after another. He spent two months hospitalized at Nationwide Children’s for blood clots in his lungs and leg. A pressure sore on his lower back grew into a gaping hole. Another large pressure sore on the back of his thigh required a skin graft and six weeks of lying face down at home.
He spent his 16th birthday, Christmas and New Year’s in the hospital, crying and depressed. Sometimes he doesn’t eat and now he’s dropped down to 113 pounds.
In the spring, the basement of his family’s rental house in Columbus’ Linden neighborhood flooded with sewage water, destroying belongings and forcing the family of six to move.
Damarion got his ankle monitor off but now his younger brother wears one after he spent five nights in the same detention center where Damarion’s life was changed forever on May 7, 2023.