Pictured left to right: Mildred Jean Kelly (family friend); Merry Kelly Wilburn (mother); Carlos Wilburn, Sr. (father); Teresa Rice (aunt); Mary Kelly (grandmother) ; Roy Grace (grandfather); Jean Grace (grandmother); Carlos Wilburn, Jr. (Submitted photo)
Carlos Wilburn, Jr., with his mother Merry Kelly Wilburn, and his sister Chellsey Quinae Lowery. (Submitted photo)
Carlos Wilburn, Jr. was found with a gunshot wound to his head inside his car on Sept. 16, 2017 approximately 1-2 p.m. in West Point at Yokohama Tire Manufacturing.
The bullet went from the right frontal lobe to the left frontal lobe.
Emotional police officers went to the home of Wilburn to give his mother, Merry Kelly Wilburn, news that her son was dead.
“Right then I was taken back like I was in quick sand, you know I couldn’t move, and I was like ‘What happened to him?’, ‘Who killed my son?,’” said Merry Wilburn.
“The police officer that came to tell me couldn’t hardly tell me for crying,” she said.
Next the sheriff came, and another officer came to tell her that she should get to Tupelo quick because Carlos was still alive but on life support.
He was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo.
“On my way to Tupelo all the way there asking God to keep him, restore him, and saying he has a long life ahead of him and asking God to just save him- save him,” she said.
“Words can’t explain. That’s my son. That’s my only son,” she added.
In April 2017, Carlos was excited to begin his new job at Yokohama.
“I was told by some of his coworkers that there was a guy on the job that was bullying,” she said.
She didn’t know about that until after Carlos was found on the property.
“It was like a pain that I’ve never felt in my whole life,” said Merry Wilburn.
The doctor told the family that the bullet went all the way through Carlos’ head from the right to the left and it would be a miracle if he makes it overnight.
“I kept praying and I kept praying, I said ‘God please, You said we have not because we ask not,’ “ Merry Wilburn said.
Carlos’ mother continued to pray that he would live.
The whole family also came in to pray.
Carlos made it through the night despite the prediction of the doctor.
About two to three days later they put Carlos on the PEG tube and place a tracheostomy tube in his throat, because his organs weren’t functioning properly.
A day following that, Merry received news from the doctor that Carlos wasn’t responding well to the tubes and advised her to ‘Let him go on and meet his maker.’
“So I told him, I said that that’s not your call, I said your job is to do everything that you’re supposed to do as a doctor for my son, but to tell me it’s no hope and I should just let him die,” Merry Wilburn said.
“I said I didn’t ask you for your opinion. Your job is to do everything you can in your field to take care of my son but you’re not God, God has the first and last say,” she added.
Carlos was unconscious for two weeks before he became responsive.
Merry began asking him to blink his eyes if he could hear her and recognize who she was.
That was successful.
He became unresponsive again and went through periods of uncontrollable sweating.
The episodes of him drenched in sweat were due to his brain “rerouting” according to doctors.
Next, Carlos was transferred to Meridian Regency Medical Center for long-term acute care.
He stayed there from October 2017 until December where he was able to react emotionally by smiling, crying and mouth words.
“During that period in Meridian, he started to wake up even more,” she said.
Merry began looking for a rehab facility and her case worker found a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta, Georgia that’s one of the best facilities in the nation and specializes in brain and spinal cord injury.
Carlos was accepted into Shepherds Rehabilitation Center on December 18, 2017 and flew in on Dec. 22.
In May, he made tremendous progress, but doctors felt that Carlos wasn’t making as much progress as they would like and he was checked out of the rehab facility.
“They was working with him as far as his upper extremities, physical therapy, lower extremities, and getting his speech right,” Merry said.
Carlos went back home where he was under the care of family members 24 hours a day being fed and changed. Two weeks later, he was admitted into a nursing home in Winona where he resides today.
Carlos is a 22-year-old native of Starkville who loves dogs and boxing.
Merry reminisced to her clothes lines being full of his boxing equipment.
“He loves singing. He loves music. His favorite group is Boys II Men,” she said.
Wanya is his favorite member of Boys II Men. He enjoys singing with his favorite cousin W.L..
“Carlos is a laid back type of guy, he doesn’t like too many people in his space,” Merry said.
His mother said he kept to himself and didn’t hang around too many people. He liked to hang out with who he chose to and was very humorous.
Right now, Merry said that her son is in a wheelchair and it is very difficult for him to get back and forth visiting home.
“It’s not like the electric one that you can just move your hand and go back and forth, you have to push him into the van and you have to have the lift,” she said.
The chair tilts Carlos back and leans him forward and gets him from point A to point B, but she needs a more accessible van to get him out of the nursing home environment and back to family.
“People tend to do better still when they’re around family and someone that’s always going to encourage him,” Merry said.
She wants to purchase the van to make the transport easier and more comfortable for him so that she can encourage him to keep thriving.
“It’s just a horse of a different color when you have a child, it makes everything different,” she said.
“As parents we would give our lives up for our kids,” Merry added.
Carlos is her only son and she would like for him to have the best chance at life possible with the financial help to purchase the van for him.
“Like I said they gave him up on three occasions,” she said as she reminisced on responding officers and doctors pronouncing him dead and advising her to let Carlos die.
“If I can get him back to and fro to the places that I need him to be, and I know that I feel like that would also help him progress,” Merry said.
Merry eagerly wants Carlos home for the holidays but needs the adequate transportation to do so.
Any donations can be made on his GoFundMe account, www.gofundme.com/claiming-restoration.