Brilea Southard has spent almost a year in hospital after she was involved in a car crash in December 2023
Brilea Southard has been in the hospital for 325 days, recovering from severe injuries after another car crashed head-on into her family’s mini-van.
She wasn’t supposed to be released for another month but after a surprise announcement, the 15-year-old will take her first steps outside the hospital in a very memorable way: she’ll be heading to Taylor Swift’s third Eras Tour show in Indianapolis on Sunday, Nov. 3, the final Swift concert in the Indiana captial.
Southard is not the only one who will get to enjoy 34-year-old Swift’s sold-out tour. The teen will be joined by 15 fellow patients at the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis who are all undergoing treatment for a range of health concerns.
The 16 pediatric patients found out the news this week at the hospital, where they thought they were just attending a Swift-inspired event to make friendship bracelets and play “Taylor Trivia.”
The last trivia question revealed the big surprise. “Who will be at Taylor’s final show on the last leg of her U.S. tour in Indianapolis?,” the hospital staffer asked.
“Um … Travis Kelce?” guessed a patient.
“Good guess but no,” they were told. “You all will be going!”
One girl jumped out of her chair with excitement and others gasped and began crying with joy.
The news of their concert tickets might be the best update some of the children have had in a while. For Southard, the exciting trip comes after she and her family were involved in a crash in December 2023, where she sustained a torn aorta and legs so badly damaged that doctors said they would need to be amputated.
“I only had a four percent chance of surviving,” Southard tells PEOPLE. She’s since undergone more than 20 surgeries, but her intestines and other organs remain shredded and “she has wound management and dressing changes twice a week under sedation,” her mother, Paula Allen, explains to PEOPLE.
Thankfully, doctors were able to save her legs.
A long-time Swiftie who has dressed up like the superstar for Halloween, Southard says the pop superstar’s music relaxes her during painful procedures, so the chance to see her perform live is “just very mind-blowing.”
“It’s going to mean so much,” Southard adds. The teen plans to wear black flare leggings and a sequined fringed jacket and will be accompanied by two nurses and a doctor and then return immediately afterwards.
