Terri pictured with her children

Recipient

It’s probably a good thing Terri Kern doesn’t remember the accident. Her last recollection is jogging in front of her home. The car that hit her threw her 35 feet, the trajectory taking her on what turned out to be a fortunate path. She missed a street sign and light pole that would have killed her and landed in a patch of grass.

When Terri arrived at the hospital, she was cut and bruised, and all the ligaments in her right knee were torn. Otherwise, she seemed all right. When her husband Mike arrived, he found her trying to take care of all the details that go along with being a mother of five.

Then, suddenly, her speech began slurring. She managed to say, “I can’t feel my arms and legs.” She began to lose her vision. The diagnosis: stroke.

A doctor friend recommended a neurosurgeon, and the surgeon suggested moving Terri to another hospital where he would meet her with his own team. Her condition was rapidly deteriorating. It was uncertain whether she could survive the trip. Mike began preparing their children for the worst.

At the new hospital, the doctors discovered that both of Terri’s carotid arteries were damaged. They weren’t sure she was getting enough blood to her brain. On top of that, blood thinners and efforts to raise her blood pressure to force blood to her brain revealed dangerous internal injuries, including a lacerated liver. With Mike leading, her family began saying the rosary.

Terri received several blood transfusions and required more when it was found she was allergic to the blood thinner heparin. A priest arrived to find her on a ventilator and connected to at least 10 tubes. He blessed her and the array of life-saving measures.

In the days that followed, while Terri struggled for life, her husband and children prayed, the parish priest said Mass on her behalf, parishioners brought food and made sure the children got to school.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it,” Terri said later. “The whole community helped out.”

After a month in ICU, Terri was moved to inpatient rehabilitation for a month. When she was finally discharged from the hospital, she still couldn’t walk or dress herself. Family and friends helped. She attended daytime rehabilitation sessions for another month. But  she was on the mend and looking forward to leading a normal life.

“I have strong faith,” she says, “and the power of prayer is huge. But without the blood I received, I would have died. I’m deeply grateful for that gift.”

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