Teen surprised with Taylor Swift tickets after 325 days in hospital (exclusive)

Brilea Southard has been in the hospital for 325 days, recovering from severe injuries after another car crashed into her family’s minivan.

She was due to be discharged for another month, but after a surprise announcement, the 15-year-old girl will take her first steps outside the hospital in a very memorable way: she will head to Taylor SwiftThe third concert of the Eras Tour in Indianapolis on Sunday, November 3, Swift’s last show in the Indiana capital.

Southard isn’t the only one who will be able to enjoy 34-year-old Swift’s performance. sold out tour. The teenager will join 15 other patients at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis who are being treated for a range of health problems.

The 16 pediatric patients learned the news this week at the hospital, where they thought they were simply attending a Swift-inspired event to make friendship bracelets and play Taylor Trivia.

The last simple question brought a big surprise. “Who will be at Taylor’s final show on the final leg of her US tour in Indianapolis?” – asked the hospital employee.

“Em… Travis Kelsey“- the patient guessed.

“Good guess, but no,” they were told. “You’re all going!”

One girl jumped out of her chair with excitement, while the others gasped and cried with joy.

The news of concert tickets may be the best thing some kids have had in a while. For Southard, the exciting journey will come after she and her family were involved in an accident in December In 2023, her aorta ruptured and her legs were so badly crushed that doctors said they would have to be amputated.

“I only had a four percent chance of surviving,” Southard told PEOPLE. Since then, she’s undergone more than 20 surgeries, but her intestines and other organs remain shredded and “she has to clean wounds and change bandages twice a week under anesthesia,” her mother Paula Allen explains to PEOPLE.

Fortunately, doctors were able to save her legs.

Southard, a longtime Swiftie who dresses up like the superstar for Halloween, says the pop superstar’s music relaxes her during painful procedures, so the opportunity to see her perform live is “just mind-blowing.”

“It will mean so much,” Southard adds. The teenager plans to wear black flared leggings and a sequined fringed jacket, be accompanied by two nurses and a doctor, and then return straight away.

“I feel very lucky,” she tells PEOPLE.

Another patient who was surprised with free room tickets during the event was 12-year-old Emma Sally, who received a heart transplant in December 2022 at Riley.

“I literally can’t stop crying right now!” says Sally. “I can’t now… I just can’t. I can’t control my emotions anymore.”

Jaisabella (Izzy) Boyd, 7, will also be heading to the show. She has sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder that leads to life-limiting complications.

Boyd’s mother, DeAndria Powell, explains that Swift’s music helped her daughter cope with her difficult diagnosis.

“One of her songs, ‘Shake It Off,’ is one of the songs we use when a pain crisis hits,” she said. “We always try to get rid of it before we take any medications, we see if we can get rid of it.”

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Another concert attendee will be 11-year-old Chari Carti, who was diagnosed with Beals syndrome at age 2, which left her with severe early-onset scoliosis. She had bracing and a spinal cast, corrective surgery, and will need more surgery in the future.

News of the concert was a welcome development for the young girl, who was wearing pink heart-shaped sunglasses. “I felt like I was going to cry because of how happy I was,” Carti, who plans hand out friendship bracelets to other kids on the show, he says.

The tickets were donated by the Riley Children’s Fund and Denney Excavating, a hospital spokesperson said.

Swift will continue her Eras Tour at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday, November 2nd and Sunday, November 3rd.