Photo Credit: D Lyons/Instagram
We covered Alabama model D Lyons over 2 years ago and being as though he referred to himself as “Dark Country Chocolate,” it’s hard to forget a name like that. And as we customarily do, we check up on people we’ve written about and to our surprise, we noticed that Lyons had been in a severe car accident recently and had been in a coma. That’s something that’s hard to see anyone go through but we’re happy to say that he’s recovering these days in therapy and apparently hasn’t missed a beat.
He’s dropped from 230 to 160 lbs and is back up to 210 now. That’s major progress for someone who was once recommended to be taken off of life support because he was expected to be a vegetable. He was ejected from his truck through the windshield from not wearing a seat belt, which actually saved him given that the truck itself was crushed. He had a traumatic brain injury and broke 4 bones in his neck, had a broken colar bone, damage to his liver, spleen and broke his coccyx or tail bone. He had a broken leg that required a rod in it, another in his neck, he shattered his ankle and had 4 broken ribs. He had a tracheotomy and a feeding tube which lead to his weight loss. His spinal chord shifted and he spent a month and a half in a coma. Not only was he not expected to make it to the hospital, the necessary medevac wasn’t possible and he had to be driven in an ambulance.
Personally, this was important because I watched a very similar story occur in high school with a choir director running into a construction site going 50 mph in the rain after falling asleep at the wheel and having an entire list of broken bones and rods placed in her body. I had a close friend I refused to get in a car with again after seeing he had been drinking, only for him to be cut out of his truck in an accident that left him with motor issues afterwards. And as for that choir director, her anesthesiologist had a similar accident and died from it. I’ve also helped motivate a close friend in their therapy after a recent stroke. Emotional and mental health concerns are just as important as physical therapy. What we can appreciate the most is that Lyons didn’t let any of this get him down. His mother has been helping him work out. He says he listens to Drake’s God’s Plan and Beware of Smiling Faces by Kevin Gates.
Lyons got his start in college basketball which at 6’5, he’s the perfect height for and got into modeling after his cousin Christopher Joyner got started. Joyner’s also on our to do list to cover, by the way. Lyons has shot with Derrick Clegg, Cliff Photography, PhotoFit Models, etc. Hard work has gotten him this far along with the support of family and those Day 1s around him. We felt this was a necessary story to tell both as an overdue update and to show how far you can make it even when you’ve been told otherwise. We can’t wait to see more from him.
Instagram | Twitter | Previous Eye Candy article