Support Stella Janssen's Road to Recovery

Hello everyone,

First and foremost and on behalf of our family and especially Stella, we send you our most profound and heartfelt thank you! The outpouring of generosity, support and kindness shown to Stella has been absolutely overwhelming and almost impossible to articulate the level of gratefulness we have felt.

An update: Stella is doing so much better, and although some days are worse than others, she seems to be improving each day. When you look at the pictures and consider what happened, we feel beyond blessed that the little girls she was nannying and Stella have made it through as they have. Honestly we feel this was nothing less than a miracle.

Nights in the hospital wondering with crossed fingers, as well as countless prayers in the surgery recovery room, have been replaced with starting rehab, shorts walks, constant ice pack replacement, and a hopeful outlook that Stella will be able to resume the life of a graduating senior who is looking forward to going off to college. As her parents we have always prided ourselves in being the ones able to "fix" things and protect our children from serious harm. In this case, the helpless feeling of having to just stand there, listen to cries, hold a hand, and squeeze into the recliner to sleep next to the hospital bed to make sure you're the first face your kid sees when they wake up, is something that has created a perspective that life and love are so important. In the end, we are so fortunate, where others haven't always been.

Your support and donations leave me trying to find the words to express how thankful we are, we never expected anything even close to this magnitude.

Here's to being thankful, holding the ones we love a little closer, and to taking the time to appreciate the people who support us.

With gratitude and love,

Stella's familyOn Tuesday June 4th, Stella Janssen was stopped at a traffic light with two children Olivia (age 8) and Mia (age 11) who she was nannying, in the backseat of her car. The car was hit head-on at 50+ mph by a driver coming from the opposite direction as he ran a red light. That driver was drunk.

Miraculously, Mia walked away from the accident without any physical injuries. Oliva sustained a concussion and facial bruising. Stella’s sternum was fractured, she sustained massive injuries to her face, resulting in multiple broken bones, and extensive damage to her teeth. Stella underwent facial reconstruction surgery on Wednesday June 5th. She will need a bone graft for her jaw, multiple root canals, dental implants, and on-going dental procedures for many years to come.

It was later determined that the individual who struck them was uninsured and bankrupt. As friends of Stella and her family, we have put this GoFundMe in place to help cover medical and dental costs that exceed what is covered under her insurance policies.

Stella’s smile lights up the room. She is a vibrant 17-year-old who is hard working in everything she does. She played competitive soccer and just got accepted to the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she plans to study nursing this Fall.

Stella has suffered physically and emotionally and will continue to do so, as the physical process of recovery will take several years. Please join us in helping to decrease the additional financial burden that this senseless crime has caused the Janssen family.