‘The Wire’ actor’s son leaves ICU, still recovering from Ga. tornado injury
ATLANTA, Ga. - The teenager who was thrown nearly 300 feet from his house during a Henry County tornado last week has been released from the intensive care unit, according to his father.
Tray Chaney, an actor known for playing “Poot” on the HBO show “The Wire,” said his son, Malachi, still has a long journey ahead of him.
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“He has to learn how to walk again by himself, and it’s a variety of things that the doctors have to do in order for us to leave this hospital, so again, keep us in prayer,” he said.
Malachi celebrated his 19th birthday Sunday from the intensive care unit at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Malachi’s birthday was a tough day for family to be celebrating at Grady Hospital, but it was still a celebration. His father and HBO actor, Tray Chaney, said that Malachi is surrounded by family and he can feel the love, is awake, talking some more and even tried to sit up to hug his parents.
“Who would’ve thought your 19th birthday would be spent in ICU,” said Tray Chaney. “This amazing kid, young man was thrown as if on the football field 300 feet, and how is he still able to say, ‘I love you mom. I love you dad, it’s my birthday.’”
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Tray Chaney said Malachi has several broken ribs, and almost every bone in his face is fractured.
“We survived the battle, went to war with the tornado and came out living and breathing. So to survive that, but now to feel the pain that I feel as a father, as a man, as a husband who is the protector of my family, it’s tough,” said Tray. “We experience a lot of great things, but to experience something as tragic as this and for me to experience it with him, another form of the pain is me not being able to protect him in that moment.”
Tray was also home at the time of the twister. He is left with a cut on his forehead that knocked him out unconscious at the time.
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Tray said, “then to wake up underneath my house with bricks on my top of my back, nails a couple of inches from my head, dressers, I know who God is. I’m in the movie business, but I lived it. I lived a real-life movie story.”
The home was destroyed.
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