Ree Drummond’s Husband Broke Neck In 2 Places After Crash With Nephew

Ree Drummond / Facebook

On Wednesday (March 10), Ree Drummond’s nephew and husband were involved in a head-on collision with each other. 21-year-old Caleb Drummond was taken to a Tulsa hospital in critical condition with injuries to his “head, trunk internal, arm and leg” after the fire truck he was driving crashed head-on with another fire truck driven by Ree’s husband, Ladd, who refused treatment at the scene of the accident.

Caleb and Ladd were working with volunteer firefighters and other fellow ranchers to put out a brush fire that had reached up to 900 acres on the Drummond’s Oklahoma ranch.

Ree took to Facebook on Thursday (March 11) to update her fans on her nephew and her husband and to thank everyone for their prayers.

“I want to thank you all for your prayers for our family. Caleb and Ladd are in the hospital, but we think they will both be okay,” she wrote. “As a family we are giving thanks today, knowing things could have been much worse. Thank you all for your love and kindness. It means a lot.“

See her full post below.

On Monday (March 15), Ree provided a further update, titled “Home Sweet Home (and So Grateful),” on her world-famous blog.

She explained the incident, while also saying the fire was the 11th fire they had battled on their ranch since November, and confirmed that Ladd had refused medical attention at the scene of the crash.

“Ladd was stiff but able to walk around immediately after the accident, so he refused medical attention,” she wrote. “This was partly because he wanted the paramedics to focus on Caleb, partly because he was still a little stunned by the accident, and partly because cowboys don’t like to admit when they’re hurt.”

Ladd ended up driving himself to the hospital to get checked out just in case after the ambulance left with Caleb. He called his wife on the way to let her know what had happened and a few hours later, it was determined that “Ladd broke his neck in two places—and evidently one of the two fractures was very close to being catastrophic.“

He was transferred to a hospital in Tulsa, where he had surgery “to stabilize one of the fractures.” The surgery went well and Ladd has to wear a neck brace for several weeks, including to his daughter Alex’s wedding, but doctors say he should be able to get back on his horse and back to work once it heals.

Ree said that Caleb suffered a few broken ribs, a “pretty bad” concussion, as well as “a few other injuries that will heal.” Both Caleb and Ladd are back home now recovering, answering the Drummond family’s prayers.

To read Ree’s entire blog post on Ladd and Caleb’s accident, click here.