Detroit Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson took what was a miserable situation and turned it into something positive.
Aidan Hutchinson had never spent a day in a hospital, let alone two.
But after breaking his tibia and fibula against the Cowboys in Week 6, as his team flew home to Detroit, Hutchinson had to stay back in Dallas for emergency surgery. Given the marvels of modern medicine, it was just a two-day stay at the hospital for Hutchinson, but even that was far too long for the eager Detroit Lions defensive end.
“Staying in a hospital for a couple days in Dallas, it was one of the most miserable experiences I’ve probably had in my life,” Hutchinson said in his first press conference since the October injury.
Hutchinson is fully healed now and cleared for all football activities , but he returns with a newfound perspective on life. Off the field, Hutchinson has spent a lot of his time working hand-in-hand with children’s hospitals—particularly Mott’s Children’s Hospital—to help provide some relief to kids in need. His own experience in a hospital, albeit a short one, helped put him in those kid’s shoes.
“I was like, ‘Dude, these kids who are in there for 30 days at a time, getting their treatments, and the parents that are in there with them,’” Hutchinson said. “I feel like that perspective; it makes me just understand more. And I didn’t really before. I just got a little taste of it. So you talk about the silver linings of the injury, and that’s kind of one of them.”
Despite the injury, Hutchinson didn’t stop his philanthropic work. Months after the injury, he was back in hospitals spreading Christmas cheer (and gifts) to children:
Admittedly, it was hard for Hutchinson in the beginning. After all, he was in the middle of what could have been a Super Bowl run and a Defensive Player of the Year type of season. Even his interactions with teammates became a source of stress, with the overwhelming sympathy and sorrow making Hutchinson feel like a victim: powerless and depressed.
But one night, after a heart-to-heart with God, Hutchinson developed a different mentality: “Unbroken.” That relentless spirit now carries him, and he hopes that it helps inspire others who may be on a similar journey.
“I feel like it was some divine intuition that instilled that in me,” Hutchinson said. “And that was a thought that I had and carried it through and was able to make some merch with the House of Hutch stuff and kind of inspire. I was now able to use that to inspire a lot of the heroes that we work within the hospital. You get a little bit of that relatability that I didn’t quite have before.”