Elliot Feltner: UC grad continues long, arduous recovery after nearly fatal crash

Elliot Feltner was clinging to life in the Intensive Care Unit at Miami Valley Hospital the first time Brendon Vando saw him after the crash. Elliot nearly died twice Aug. 20, 2016, in the moments after an impaired driver going more than 100 miles an hour smashed into the back of his car as he drove north on Interstate 75.  “He just had every tube possible coming out of everywhere possible,” Vando said. “He was non-responsive to pretty much anything.” That’s what makes his condition now -- less than 14 months later -- so remarkable. Elliot can get around the first floor of his parents’ home on his own. He can lift himself from his wheelchair into a car. And his brain was not injured, making him essentially the same Elliot he was before the day that changed his life forever. “He’s still kind of in the same spirits he always was in,” said Vando, who has been friends with Elliot since before they attended Turkey Foot Middle School together. “Maybe a little more positive outlook at some stuff. Honestly I don’t see too big a difference.” There is a difference, of course. Before the crash, Elliot was a graduate of the University of Cincinnati pursuing his dreams of becoming a filmmaker. He had been prom king and captain of the varsity soccer team at Dixie Heights High School. He loved inline skating and would spend hours practicing a trick until he got it just right. Now he’s a 23-year-old who has to use a wheelchair to get around. The spinal cord injury he sustained in the crash damaged his arms and hands, too.