Update on former TCU quarterback Bram Kohlhausen’s condition is a miracle amid a tragedy
Start everything about Bram Kohlhausen that the man should not be alive.
The former TCU quarterback fell from a helicopter from an estimated height of 75 feet.
According to friends close to the TCU alum who finished his football career in the 2015 season, he recently had both of his feet amputated.
Kohlhausen, 30, suffered the fall the second week of May during a hunting accident near San Antonio; he was hunting for wild hogs from a helicopter. The specifics of the fall remain unclear.
When he fell, he landed on both of his feet, which may be the single biggest reason he is alive today.
Miraculously, he is talking, texting, and FaceTiming with family and friends from the hospital.
Originally, there was hope that he would avoid amputation. The original prognosis was one foot could be saved.
Amid other extensive surgeries, and recovery, it became apparent that doctors could save neither foot. He lost both feet up to the mid calf portion of his legs.
As awful as this prognosis is, it could have been so much worse; the man is alive.
He suffered a variety of other major injuries, broken bones, etc.
Friends of the family said that his brain activity is improving, and that he is good mentally; his memory appears intact.
According to friends of the Kohlhausen family, Bram has been transported to a rehab facility in Houston. This should mean that he no longer will need any more major surgeries.
After the fall, he was originally transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He could not have landed at a better hospital.
Brooke is the hospital where the U.S. military sends the most dire trauma victims, many of whom suffered injuries during the conflicts in the Middle East.
Kohlhausen suffered the injury when he was participating in a hunting trip on private property, which has become common in Texas.
In an effort to curb the population growth of wild hogs, which Texas A&M professors say do more than $50 million in property damages each year in the state, lawmakers have aggressively expanded laws to legalize hunting the wild animals.
In 2011, the state passed the “pork chopper” law, which permits hunters to pay to shoot feral hogs from a helicopter. As a result, hunting from a helicopter has become a profitable business; these trips can go for $3,000 a person.
In May of 2019, the state also passed a law to kill feral hogs on private property.
Kohlhausen is best known at TCU for essentially one game, the Alamo Bowl on Jan. 2, 2016.
He was an emergency starter after Heisman hopeful Trevone Boykin was kicked off the team earlier in the week after he got into a bar fight in San Antonio.
TCU trailed Oregon 31-0 at the half, but came back to win the game, 47-41. At the time it tied for the largest comeback in bowl history.
Kohlhausen finished the game 28-of-45 passing for 351 yards and two touchdowns. He later worked with former Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist Jim Reeves for his book, “Remember the Alamo Bowl: Bram Kohlhausen’s Epic TCU Comeback.”
There is no snappy “comeback” transition after that.
A man suffered a terrible accident, and his life is forever changed as a result.
But Bram Kohlhausen is alive having survived a fall of 75 feet.
He is improving. He’s going to make it.
Both are miracles.
This story was originally published July 3, 2023 at 9:12 AM.
