Dr. Atkinson and Whitten's care team helped organize a mock graduation ceremony for him so he could practice walking before the official ceremony, which he attended with only an arm crutch on May 17.
Will Whitten was on an ordinary hunting trip with his friends in January when he decided to head home, leaving the group behind. The 18-year-old had work in the morning, so he got into his truck in the early hours of Jan. 26 -- and dozed off behind the wheel.
"I was very, very exhaustedly tired," Whitten tells PEOPLE, recalling that he woke up on his trip back home right before a curve in the road. When he "overcorrected," his truck veered off and flipped, leaving him with a broken back and the very real possibility of never taking another step.
After suffering a serious spinal cord injury that left him unable to move his arms or legs, Whitten was taken to TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston, where he began to learn to walk again. His ultimate goal? To recover enough to cross the stage at his high school graduation.
"That's one of the big monuments in anybody's life -- it's the first big deal, to say I completed something," Whitten tells PEOPLE.
The team at TIRR Memorial Hermann wanted to make that goal a reality after Whitten's "intense" injury, which required him to undergo spinal fusion, pediatric hospitalist Dr. Autumn Atkinson tells PEOPLE.
"One of the first questions I asked him on the day I met him was, what is your goal? What would you like to be able to do? And he said he would love to be able to walk in some capacity by graduation," Dr. Atkinson recalls.
Kim Barnes, the hospital's school coordinator, suggested they do something in honor of Whitten's graduation, and his care team sprang into action: "It just took one sentence," Dr. Atkinson says. "Everybody just jumped on board, and it turned into what it was."
Whitten admits he "ruined" the surprise graduation for himself by being "nosy," telling PEOPLE with a laugh, "I kind of peeped and I was like, oh, seems like somebody’s graduating. I wonder who’s graduating? And I was like, oh, I’m the only one."
Striking a more serious tone, he says it was a "big deal" for his care team to organize a graduation where he could practice using a walker and wearing his cap and gown before his official ceremony.
Whitten says the mock event "showed how much love and support" his care team provided and made him realize the doctors and nurses who helped him recover "genuinely do care for you."
His mother, Jeannie Whitten, was surprised by the graduation too, and tells PEOPLE she "had no idea the magnitude of what they were going to do" at the hospital.
She was shocked when nurse techs, nurses, doctors and physical therapists all showed up for Will's event, but says, "I think he made a mark on a lot of people's hearts while he was there. Everybody just really wanted to see him succeed."
Will left TIRR on April 4 with a bariatric walker. On May 17, he walked across the stage with the assistance of an arm crutch as some members of his care team -- who had traveled over four hours -- watched him accept his diploma from Haughton High School in Haughton, La.
Jeannie becomes emotional describing the "pride" and "admiration" she felt seeing Will walk across the stage at graduation.
"School's never been easy for him," she says. "So to get to this finish line was really good, and a big deal and a proud moment. We've fought over homework for 13 years, you know? But to achieve the goal of graduating and then have this on top of it, it was just beyond heartwarming."
Now, Will -- who is still undergoing rehabilitation in the months after his accident -- hopes to attend college and study business or sociology. He says interactions at the hospital "opened my eyes" to the "human impact" of the nurses, doctors and caseworkers there. A friend of his family has since organized a GoFundMe to help cover his medical costs.
And weeks after his graduation, he's beginning to walk without any assistance from a crutch.