eternity to her family. “When we were in intensive care, we
thought she was in a very critical state,” says her father. “We
thought of the worst things that could possibly happen and
all the terrible things that were going on. Seeing my daughter
that way, it was very hard for me. My wife was falling apart,
she was having a nervous crisis, and I was also falling apart
… I didn’t know what to do because I was worrying so
much about my daughter and my wife.”
Hearing the prognoses also seemed to spell out doom, but
as the days went by it became clear that Kathi was going
to make it through and survive. They now understand the
doctors were being cautious. “I understand why they do it,”
Byron says, “because if they give us an exact time, people
would be pressuring them if the timeline didn’t fit their
prognoses. I would always tell my wife that … and that we
would have to wait.”
Among other things, Kathi had to deal with pneumonia
and a urinary tract infection that impeded her progress. “We
experienced good and bad days,” her cousin Jackie says, “and
this is something one of the doctors said, that it would be
something like a rollercoaster.”
By the end of the first week,
though, Kathi had started
moving her limbs around
on her own somewhat,
even a bit on her right side,
though she still wasn’t
wakeful. This was enough
to make Jackie feel
heartened: “Even when
she was in the ICU, when
you touched her hand
she would squish it. She
would move her feet,
she’d cross them. She’d
feel we were there. The
nurses weren’t there
and didn’t see it, but I
saw it.”
Eventually the
swelling in Kathi’s
brain started coming
down, and as the acute
phase of her illness started coming to an
end it was time to start planning ahead. After discussion
with her family, a tracheostomy and feeding tube were
placed to facilitate her transition out of the ICU. After
the tracheostomy, Kathi’s family says they “thought more
positively … because there were fewer tubes in her, and
they felt more sure about the outcome of all of this.”
A Glimpse of the Girl They Knew
After several more days, Kathi was able to move from the
ICU to the stepdown unit. Her family first started getting a
glimpse of the girl they knew as she started to wake up, like
“when she yawned for the first time, when she scratched her
nose for the first time.” Each of these gestures would carry
special meaning.
Only a couple weeks after the tracheostomy was placed, she
had already woken up enough to have it downsized and
ultimately removed. Finally, in mid-February, she made the
transition to acute inpatient rehabilitation, which her family
knew was a huge step.
Around the same time Kathi also started speaking for the
first time. Her mother Mildred remembers that moment.
“She started singing, and then she heard her own voice for
the first time and the sound that came out … she got quiet
again because she got shocked by it, and then she started
singing again!” She then called Byron. “I was working,” he
says, “and my wife called me to tell me that Kathi had
spoken, and I started crying tears of happiness.” Jackie,
meanwhile, remembers “dancing in the car” when she first
got the call while she was sitting in a drive-through.
Now, at almost two months after that fateful day, I too can
start to see glimpses of that girl. I see Kathi with her helmet
off, sitting up in bed, her eyes wide open looking around
at me and at her family. The right side of her head has her
hair in a braid, while the left side has grown back about
half an inch since her surgery. She still doesn’t speak much.
But when Jackie asks her to, Kathi waves hello to me with
her left hand.
Kathi’s father says that she is doing better at this point than
anyone expected. “I thought of her … having difficulty with
her right side and speaking, as she is now. But thank God
there’s been a lot of progress, and for me it’s a short amount
of time, because they were telling us six months. And this
has all been happening in just a month and a half.”
Keeping the Faith
When I ask what’s helped them get through this terrible
ordeal, Kathi’s family instantly attributes it to their faith.
“God and our faith has helped us 100 percent,” they all say.
“Our faith in God has guided us and all the doctors that
have been working with Kathi so she could get to the point
where she could recuperate.”
They also realize how many things had to happen in just
the right way for her to make it this far. “We’re very faithful,
so if God did this for her, if he saved her, we thought of
all the possible things that could have happened in that
situation, on that highway … it could have been worse,
and she wouldn’t have been here right now. A lot of
things could have been different. We’re thankful for
everyone that’s helped her … everyone worked together
to save her life. And we’re never going to be able to repay
everything they’ve done.”
Just as importantly, though, they’ve kept their faith in
Kathi. “We thought it was going to be difficult for her …
to come here to rehab,” Jackie says. “Even though there
were doctors that didn’t give us a positive outlook, of rehab
being an option, we’re here now. After the first few days,
we knew she was going to make it, because she’s strong and
has perseverance.”
They also think that, as she continues to recover, she’ll
understand and agree with everything that’s been done for
her. “We have a huge trust in each other,” her father says.
“We know each other very well.”
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