Iowa football welcomes Oskaloosa boy as season’s first Kid Captain
Stead Family Children’s Hospital saves Kid Captain Nolan Stevenson after near fatal farm accident.
At just 6 years old, Nolan Stevenson’s life changed in an instant.
The utility task vehicle (UTV) in which he and his parents were riding overturned on the family farm, ejecting Nolan and his dad. Nolan was flown by helicopter to an area hospital and transferred to University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital with multiple severe injuries.
“That day, God started a new chapter for our family. The first several pages of this chapter were a blur for all of us,” Nolan’s mother, Justine Brink, says of the accident that happened in 2023. “When we arrived at the children’s hospital, Nolan endured a 15-hour surgery on many different parts of his body. Doctors called it a ‘polytrauma,’ which essentially means trauma to different body parts and organs.”
Nolan’s pelvis was fractured on the right side and completely crushed on the left. The initial surgery reconstructed his bladder, among other essential repairs to keep his body functioning.
“Dr. Matthew Karam told us that Nolan's polytrauma was a ‘once every 10 years’ type of event,” Brink says. “As a parent, that was very difficult to comprehend just hours after the accident. Little did I know we would be asked to make very difficult decisions for Nolan's care in the coming days, weeks, and months. Decisions that no parent wants to make.”
Tragedy after joy
Nolan’s accident came at a time when his family was meant to be celebrating a new chapter in their lives. Justine Brink’s first husband and Nolan’s father, Chasen Stevenson, died of cancer when Nolan was just 2 years old. She and Adam Brink were married March 31, 2023, in Florida, and flew back to Iowa on April 3.
“The accident happened on April 6,” she says. “So, within a week of this joyous event for our family, we had this tragedy and one of the toughest things we’ve had to go through.”
She says the accident came on a beautiful night when the family was preparing for the upcoming planting season.
“We took our UTV out to check the field conditions. On the way there, the UTV rolled, and both Adam and Nolan were ejected.”
Brink found her phone inside the UTV, called 911, and used her shirt as a tourniquet to minimize Nolan’s bleeding until emergency personnel arrived. Nolan was moved onto a helicopter and flown to an area hospital.
Nolan was stabilized at the other hospital, but because no pediatric urologist was available to perform needed treatment, he was transferred by helicopter to Stead Family Children's Hospital. Brink was familiar with UI Health Care Medical Center, where her first husband had received cancer treatment.
Trusting the health care team
Because of her familiarity with UI Health Care, Brink experienced a mix of emotions as a large care team assembled to save her young son.
“For me, it was kind of this wave again, of déjà vu,” she says. “But I knew this was the best place to deal with all of his injuries.”
Less than a week after his initial 15-hour surgery, Nolan’s family faced the most difficult decision of their lives. The damage to the boy’s lower extremities was so severe that his left leg needed to be amputated below the knee, and one week after that, Nolan underwent a hemipelvectomy to remove the left side of his pelvis due to the severity of the break.
To repair injuries to his skin, Nolan underwent 38 daily dressing changes, seven debridement surgeries to remove damaged tissue, and allograft and autograft surgeries to transplant donor tissue and his own skin tissue. He was discharged after 84 days as an inpatient.
“The compassion and kindness shared with Nolan and our family will forever be remembered,” Brink says. “The nurses cried and grasped our hands, we were hugged by doctors, and we cried with the staff.”
An example to future doctors
During a visit last summer, his parents learned that Nolan's case was known by nearly all of the residents and pre-med students at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
“We pray that his pain has been put to purpose — to teach, guide, and encourage future healers,” Brink says. “We are so grateful for the compassion they provided during Nolan's inpatient stay and the warm welcomes we receive during his follow-up visits.”
Adam underwent surgery on his hip and wrist, and while he has since returned to farming, the couple had to rely on others to take care of their livestock and other farming that season.
“We were overwhelmed with the support of our family and friends,” Brink says, adding that they had just received a bottle calf for Nolan right before the accident.
The goal was for Nolan to raise the calf, feeding it with a bottle — hence the name — and show it at local competitions, but the calf proved to be a challenge for the family.
Adapting to challenges
Nolan returned to school using a wheelchair and has since transitioned to walking with a prosthetic leg.
Now 9 years old and in fourth grade, Nolan enjoys playing golf, boating, swimming, fishing, and life on the farm.
“He would tell everyone that lunch is his favorite subject, but he does love school,” Brink says, adding that she and Adam admire Nolan’s ability to make people laugh and to adapt to various challenges.
One of those involves showing cattle in competitions.
Before Nolan returned to the farm from the hospital, no one had been able to get his bottle calf to walk with them. Amazingly, the calf walked with Nolan in his wheelchair. He was able to show the bottle calf that summer.
“We admire his attitude and spirit,” Adam Brink says. “The whole thing has been hard, but it’s a lot easier with all the support we have and his attitude.”
Nolan continues to see his care team at Stead Family Children’s Hospital for regular checkups.
“We have so much healing that took place there,” Justine Brink says. “Spiritual healing and physical healing and mental healing for all of us.”
Photos from Kids Day 2025
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