Help us get our Thelma back

Hello, my name is Renee, and I'm fundraising for the love of Thelma and her recovery.

On March 15, 2020, my son Paul (Jordan) and his family were traveling home from Austin, Tx from my granddaughter's (Isabella) 5th birthday party when a freak accident with a deer occurred. An oncoming vehicle hit a deer and hydroplaned over into my son's lane, and went straight through the windshield to the back end of the car.

My daughter-in-law Thelma took the brunt of the impact from the deer as her motherly instinct kicked in to protect her children, and she turned to shield her daughter, who was sitting in the middle of the back seat.

Unfortunately, she could not stop the impact from reaching her daughter.

I will never forget that phone call from my son saying Thelma and Isabella were not breathing, and he was doing CPR.

They both died that day! But God had different plans and sent an angel (an off-duty nurse) who continued to perform CPR on Isabella while Paul performed CPR on Thelma till the paramedics arrived.

Isabella was loading up and taken to the hospital, where they had to induce coma as her neck was decapitated (as they described it) with a break at her C1 & C2. They gave us no hope for her recovery! Said she would never walk/talk again. But once again, God was in control. After almost a month Isabella was stable enough to have the surgery on her neck (they pieced her back together with screws) and moved her up to rehabilation recovery. And there, she showed us all how strong she is. She started talking and walking again. After another month of rehab, she was dismissed from the hospital with outpatient rehab. To this day (2 1/2 years later), she still has some TBI issues and limited movement with her left arm. She has a brachial plexus injury. She's had one surgery to transfer some of her nerves from the arm to the elbow/wrist. She still has another surgery to go to repair the shoulder. After that I'm hoping/praying she will regain full use of her left arm.

After 2 1/2 months I brought the grandkids home with me to NC so Paul could get back to work for income and be close to Thelma.

Unfortunately for Thelma, her recovery has been/is long and harder on her/us. They say children bounce back quicker than adults and I believe it.

Back to Thelma! She died several times on the scene of the accident and had a heart attack before they could get her stable enough to transport her to the hospital. Once at the hospital because of the blunt force trauma to her head she had bleeding on her brain. She had to have emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. Then she had to have another emergency surgery to release the fluid on her brain. They ended up having to remove her bone flap (which left the left side of her head flat until they could reattach it at a later date.) She was in the hospital much longer than Isabella.

All of this was happening just as the COVID outbreak started, so there was limited access to being by her side.

When she was stable enough, they released her to a neurology rehab clinic, where she was neglected because of her inability to speak or move on her own. We were under the impression that they were working with her every day during therapy time to rehabilitate her, but that was not the case. We could not get inside because of COVID and could only see her through the window outside. From the outside we were unaware that they were neglecting her and because of this her skin broke down on her backside and created the worst bed sore I have ever seen. So then came another intensive surgery to repair the damage from the bedsore. She did not return to that rehabilitation place and was moved to another one. But again because of COVID no one could get in and be by her side.

We moved her here to North Carolina to be with her kids around May 2021.

Her recovery has been a slower process. She has not spoken since the accident, is tube fed, and is wheelchair-bound.

She suffers from traumatic brain injury, spasticity, dystonia, and aphasia. The spasticity makes her muscles contract and tone up often. The dystonia in her neck prevents her from holding her head in the correct position without support.

We have just gotten her within the Duke system to continue her speech and physical therapies.

She is making progress but it's slow progress. The odds have been against her every step of the way and she’s been let down many times within her steps of recovery.

We would love to hear her voice and laughter once again, and will continue to pray for her miracle.

With hope and faith I am creating this fundraising to help Thelma continue in her recovery and everyday needs.

She does have insurance, but as we all know insurance is limited on how much they actually pay and what they will actually pay for. She has a very high deductible of 7,000 that starts over on January 1st.

We've had her in Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments for a year now (which seemed to be helping) and taking her to a functional neurologist in Raleigh. Insurance does not cover the cost of either of these, so we've had to stop treatments for over a month now. There are so many necessary things that she needs daily that insurance does not cover. There are some medications she takes daily that insurance does not cover.

We can get her into other programs and things to purchase for at-home therapy, but our resources are gone.

Her husband Paul has been the source of all the financial assistance for the past 2 1/2 years. Him alone!

His resources are maxed out!

His job is out of state and what he brings in does not cover the cost of everything for Thelma and the kids.

He doesn't get to be home with Thelma to help her, be by her side during her recovery, or be with the kids.

He is one of the strongest men I've ever known to go through all of this and still push onward. He would trade places with Thelma in a heartbeat if it meant she could be ok. He wants his wife/soulmate back. The kids want their mommy back!

We must find a way to continue her therapies and provide her with the tools and equipment for her recovery.

Please help Thelma!

Donate what you can and please share this with your social media and friends so we can reach more people.

Also please keep Thelma in your prayers for complete healing!

If you have resources to help us please reach out to me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.