Man who survived 244 days in a coma died after being hit by a pickup truck

A Florida man who miraculously emerged from a 244-day coma after being hit by a car in 2017 was recently killed in a traffic accident.

Drew Kohn, 29, was fatally struck by a pickup truck in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday, July 26, his mother, Yolanda Osborne-Kohn, told NBC affiliate WTLV — more than six years after he awoke from a coma following a collision between his motorcycle and a car.

“God heard my request and I’m not angry,” Osborne-Kohn told WTLV. “I’m not angry. I’ve found my peace. I got seven years and like Hezekiah turning his face to the wall, I remember sitting on Drew’s hospital bed and saying to myself, ‘Your will be done.'”

On July 17, 2017, Kohn, then 22, was riding his motorcycle to a gym when it collided with a car, knocking Kohn unconscious. He was taken to a hospital and remained in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, as well as a broken shoulder, punctured lungs and other injuries, WTLV reported.

“Doctors thought he was brain dead and would never walk or talk again,” says a GoFundMe page set up after Kohn’s recent death.

Osborne-Kohn told WTLV that doctors were considering harvesting her son’s organs for donation due to his serious condition, but she put her faith in God.

“It was my faith that gave me the courage to speak up, to fight back, to tell them they won’t get a toenail or an eyelash,” Osborne-Kohn recently recalled.

Then, in March 2018, nearly a year after the collision, Kohn awoke from his coma and reportedly said these first words to his mother, according to First Coast News: “I love you, Mom.”

Kohn gradually recovered, and his mother said she kept his braces and wheelchair as a reminder of the progress he had made in his rehabilitation.

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In a 2020 interview with WTLV, Kohn called herself “a modern-day miracle,” adding, “My story is about never giving up hope. Anything is possible when God is in it. I just want to tell others to never give up.”

On July 26, 2024, at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time, a pedestrian later identified as Kohn was walking eastbound on a road in the 8800 block of Collins Road, around the same time a Ford pickup truck was traveling eastbound on the same road, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office wrote in an email to PEOPLE on Monday, July 29.

“It was dark at the time and the pedestrian was not wearing reflective clothing,” the sheriff’s office statement continued. “Unfortunately, the driver of the pickup truck did not see the pedestrian and struck him in the outside lane. The driver of the pickup truck stopped and called 911. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue (JFRD) arrived on the scene and pronounced the victim deceased.”

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office added that the driver of the truck remained at the scene and no other people were involved or injured in the incident.

Authorities also said traffic and homicide detectives and the coroner’s office were on site to investigate the incident.

Kohn was just days away from his 30th birthday when he was killed, according to the GoFundMe page set up to help Kohn’s family pay for his funeral expenses. As of Monday morning, the fundraiser has so far raised nearly $8,000.

“Drew is healed, can walk and has no problems balancing anymore,” Osborne-Kohn said after her son’s death, according to WLTV. “His arm is probably raised high enough to say, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ Drew probably has a football in one hand and a Bible in the other.”