Sweet Scarlett Hall is finally home with her family after a year of hospital stays
Eleven-year-old Scarlett Hall and her little brother, Rolen, have shared a special bond their entire lives. But on June 19, 2025, everything changed.
While swimming in a creek that day, Scarlett was sucked into a clogged creek bridge culvert in Douglas County and became trapped underwater in a terrifying experience in which other creek patrons and emergency personnel attempted to rescue the girl. She was eventually pushed through to the other side after an officer and another adult, who were attempting to save the girl, were also accidently sucked into the underwater culvert by the tremendous current there. Thankfully, their weight broke the debris free that kept the girl from exiting the other side, and she and the two adults were pushed through the pipe.
CPR was performed on Scarlett at the scene, and she was taken by air ambulance to the hospital, where her parents were told that she may not survive. But, against all odds, Scarlett lived. However, the length of time she spent underwater caused a serious brain injury that has dramatically altered life ever since for the Hall family.
For the past 11 months, Scarlett has lived full-time in a hospital setting as she has continued her recovery process. Medical professionals told her parents in the early months that the MRI showed that Scarlett would never be able to do anything intentionally or purposefully again, “...that Scarlett would only exist in a bed, kept alive by machines...” her dad Clint told the Times. But, with intense therapies and medical care from the Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital near St. Louis, Scarlett has made great progress. Although she is still very limited in her physical movement without help and she cannot yet speak, Scarlett has continued to let her family know that she’s still here, spunky personality and all.
“One of the biggest milestones has been her ability to communicate using her eyes. She can now make choices and even play simple games like Uno by selecting cards,” Clint said, referencing a machine that reads aloud choices Scarlett makes by moving her eyes to various places on a screen, which can include words or pictures. “That’s something we never could have imagined early on.”
Scarlett made substantial progress during her time at Ranken Jordan, but that chapter was also hard on the family in other ways. Her mother, Shelby, remained by Scarlett’s side for much of the journey, while Rolen and their father, Clint, superintendent of the Mansfield School District, have stayed at their home in Ava during the school week, traveling to the hospital on weekends to be with Scarlett and Shelby.
That chapter was an adjustment for the family, especially for the two siblings who had rarely spent time apart before the accident. But it is now over.
Last week Scarlett was discharged from Ranken Jordan Pediatric and made the journey back to their home in Ava, where the whole family is once again all living under one roof.
Life may look a little different for the siblings now than it did before the accident, but their bond remains just as strong. It didn’t take long for them to fall back into familiar routines. Last Friday, when parents Clint and Shelby Hall walked into Scarlett’s room, they found both children snuggled together beneath Scarlett’s purple sheets, and Shelby said she couldn’t help but smile. In that moment, it felt like maybe more had stayed the same than had changed.
“Prior to the accident, this was their normal,” Shelby posted to the Facebook page “Scarlett Strong” where she has shared daily updates since the accident.
She explained that when Rolen was born, he and Scarlett shared a bedroom, and as young children, the siblings would often choose to sleep curled up together in the same bed. As they grew older and moved into separate rooms, Shelby said Rolen still often snuck back into Scarlett’s bedroom at night to snuggle his sister while he drifted off to sleep.
“She even made a rule that he had to stay in his own bed on school nights,” Shelby said. “...but often she would end up going and getting him.”
Seeing the two siblings cuddled up together is part of the Hall family’s new normal, one that, in many ways, still feels comfortingly familiar.
“It has been 11 months since normal for both of them,” Shelby said. “It melted our hearts to see him crawl into bed with his sissy.”
Clint told the Times that leaving Ranken Jordan was such a bittersweet moment, as the family has grown to love the nurses and medical professionals who have work so extensively with their daughter. It also marked a period of uncertainty for the family, as they leave the hospital walls and experience many things outside of them for the first time since the accident.
“One of our biggest concerns was how she would tolerate the long drive home after months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, but she handled the trip remarkably well without significant issues,” he said.
As the family made their way from St. Louis back home, they were escorted by the Mansfield Fire Department, Mansfield Police Department and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office through areas in Mansfield and Ava where dozens of their friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors and other community members, including several Ozark Countians, lined the streets, waving, cheering and holding up signs.
Clint said last month that Brian Garrison, Ava Assembly and Cross Point Church renovated their home in preparation for bringing Scarlett home, putting in a wheelchair shower, completing a main level bedroom conversion, pouring a concrete pad for parking, building a ramp and converting their garage into a therapy space. The space now allows the family to purposefully use the space for Scarlett’s needs.
“Since arriving home, she has settled in comfortably and has been surrounded by family, friends, nurses, and an incredible support system from our surrounding communities,” Clint told the Times last week.
“Some of the most meaningful moments have been the simple ones. Scarlett has enjoyed spending time with her brother, Rolen, playing family games, visiting her grandparents’ home for the first time since the accident, listening to music and beginning to use therapy equipment in her home environment.
“Seeing her reconnect with familiar places, routines and the people she loves has brought a sense of joy and normalcy back into our lives,” he said. “It has been amazing to watch her adapt to home life. We have not seen any of the elevated heart rate or toning issues since returning home.”
He says the family has been blessed with excellent home health nurses, and they continue to receive support from specialists at Ranken Jordan, who are just a phone call away. They’ve also been extremely thankful for all the meals they’ve received from friends and countless acts of kindness shown from the surrounding communities.
“While there are still daily challenges, including navigating insurance issues and ongoing medical needs, we are grateful for the progress Scarlett continues to make and for every milestone along the way,” Clint said.
In the coming months, the family will add Scarlett’s in-home therapies back into their routine to help her continued recovery. She will start occupational therapy (developing skills for daily living) and music therapy this month, in June, physical therapy in July and speech therapy in August.
In the meantime, the Hall family is filling in the gaps at home the best that they can in the renovated garage space. “...We have a couple of custom platform tables to aid us in this endeavor as well as equipment from the hospital like her stander,” he explained.
He and Shelby continue to find blessings in the everyday things, just thankful that they still have their sweet, spunky little girl.
“Most importantly, we are thankful to be together at home as a family. We continue to pray for Scarlett’s nurses, continued healing, recovery and restoration.”
There are still many unknowns ahead for Scarlett and her family, but as they have been from the beginning, the Halls are focused on the blessings they can see right in front of them: their little girl whose determination continues to defy expectations, her brother who has never stopped missing his best friend and their home once again filled with the sounds of family.
After 11 long months, Scarlett is finally where she belongs.
She’s home.
Editor’s note: The Halls are well known and special to many people in Ozark County, as Clint served as Gainesville High School Principal from 2021-23, and Scarlett attended school at Gainesville during that time too.