Family of former patient donates $5 million to Mission Hospital

Six years after Mission Hospital doctors saved an 18-year-old Orange County man’s life and prevented serious brain damage, his family has donated $5 million to the Mission Viejo facility.

The gift, from the family of Adam Williams, is the largest received by the hospital. Williams was critically injured in a motorcycle accident in 1999, but he is now married with a 2-year-old son and living a normal life in Dana Point.

“I feel very lucky,” Williams said Tuesday. “The way I came into the hospital, I should have been dead or a vegetable. It’s amazing, but I’ve had a full recovery.”

Mission Hospital began receiving gifts from the Williams family shortly after he was released from the facility. After spending a month sleeping on the floor while her son lay in a coma, Nancy Williams donated eight reclining chairs for the hospital’s waiting room.

Later, she gave more than $2.5 million to the hospital to build surgical suites and fund the nonprofit Adam Williams Traumatic Brain Injury initiative designed to educate doctors and nurses on life-saving traumatic brain injury techniques.

The $5-million gift will go toward construction of a neuroscience floor in Mission Hospital’s patient care tower, which will be built next year and named in honor of the Williams family and the doctors and nurses who cared for Adam Williams.

“It’s a very gracious, generous family,” said Winnie Johnson, Mission Hospital’s vice president. “Even when people have that kind of money to give, they don’t necessarily do it. It’s just incredible.”

Williams was injured during his senior year at Dana Hills High School while “goofing around” on a motorcycle in front of his house. He hit a curb and fell off the back of the bike, striking his head on the pavement. Williams, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered brain trauma and massive cuts to his arm.

Doctors temporarily removed a portion of his skull to relieve swelling on the brain.

After a month in a coma and another month of rehab, Williams graduated with his class at Dana Hills and went on to Santa Barbara City College for two years. He is currently running the brain injury initiative.

“I guess God had a message for me,” Williams said. “I was kind of headed down the wrong road of life in high school before I got hurt. But God had a purpose for me: to try and save lives.”

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david.mckibben@latimes.com