Victim recalls nightmare crash
The day started like any normal weekday. The 36-year-old mother of two hugged her kids and got in her car to drive to work from her home near
"That morning I walked out my front door, telling my two boys I loved them and to have a good day at school, not knowing our lives would be forever changed," she said.
Jodi had been a single mom for a long time. About two years before, she met
Jodi and Brian's wedding was set to take place in
Jodi was driving her Nissan Rogue south on state
As Jodi's and Ramsey's vehicles approached one another on the bridge,
With the Suburban heading straight for Jodi, the concrete barrier to her right and Ramsey's vehicle to her left, Jodi had nowhere to go. She did the only thing she could -- she hit the brakes.
"All I remember is seeing a white Suburban whipping out from behind a car like a
According to an OHP report, the impact from the SUV drove Jodi's Rogue backward 98 feet. The impact also caused the Suburban to spin, with the rear passenger side slamming into the front driver's side of Ramsey's vehicle.
The nightmare begins
Jodi was horrifically injured. With dozens of broken bones and internal bleeding, she said she remembers coming to and screaming for help. She was in terrible pain. Twisted and broken, she was trapped inside her mangled vehicle.
"Angels were on my side that day, as right behind (Farrington) not far was off-duty
Firefighters from
"Once I got to the hospital, I coded (her heart stopped)," Jodi said. "I had lost so much blood internally and I had open fractures so I'm sure I was bleeding outside everywhere, too."
Brian was later told his fiancé had been in a wreck. He went straight to the hospital. Staff there told him doctors were working on her and as soon as it was possible, a doctor would be out to talk to him. Doctors worked for hours to stabilize her, during which time her heart stopped again.
At around
"I had very extensive leg damage from it all," she said. "I was in surgery until six or seven o'clock that night. I don't really remember anything. I remember the ICU. I am a pretty vivid dreamer, and it's one of those things where I woke up and I saw the curtains and the nurses, and I see the flashback of that truck and I was thinking, I was still in a dream. I pulled out the tubes."
The pain she experienced when she pulled out the tubes from her nose and mouth caused her to lose consciousness. Jodi said it took several days to even think straight.
The morning of the wreck, Jodi's coworkers reached her oldest son at school to let him know what had happened.
"It just kills me thinking that, my kids, which, I have raised my boys all on my own until three years ago, so we have a pretty good bond, and for them to find out at school that your mom's been in a wreck," Jodi said Thursday.
She was in the ICU for four days and was hospitalized for months.
"My femurs were broken, my knees, my right foot (was broken) because I had just slammed on the brake so much that everything (was broken). I think the top of my foot wound up meeting the top of my shin or something."
Her jaw was broken on both sides.
"One part of the right side of my jaw required my mouth be wired for six weeks, but my left side, it fractured right through part of a joint that is still broken," she said. "They need to put in an artificial joint. I just don't want to have my jaw wired for six weeks again."
She said her chin was shattered and doctors put a plate in her mouth. She suffered compressed vertebrae in her neck and lower back. Her sternum was also broken.
For the tomboy-tough Jodi, who grew up toiling on a dairy farm in rural
Here comes the sun
On
Jodi was not allowed to walk or put weight on her legs for three months.
"I took my first step
She said it took some doing as she had forgotten how to stand. She suffered feelings of worthlessness during her recovery and had to fight feelings of giving up.
"All summer, basically my 13-year-old (Cody) took care of me during the day, because my 16-year-old (Nathan) was working at a farm, and when (Brian) had to work, so (Cody) was my caregiver when my physical therapist and nurses weren't there."
After six months of recovery, Jodi returned to her job.
"I came back to work in October," Lopresto said, "right at my six-month mark."
She said her coworkers were like family and were a huge help to her and her family after the wreck and during her recovery, for which she is grateful. Jodi continues to work and walks with the aid of a cane. Her recovery isn't over yet, though. She faces more surgeries in the future.
"I have my jaw surgery that I need to eventually do," she said. "I need to have my knee replaced and my right femur is not growing correctly, it's just not enough bone, so when they do the knee replacement on my right side, they'll go ahead and put a rod up. I have plates that they put on the outside of my femurs, well, they will take that out and they'll just put a cadaver bone or a rod to replace that femur, because it's just not 100 percent strong."
Jodi has insurance through the
"And I thank the good Lord because my OU bill was
Jodi didn't want to get married until she could walk down the aisle with her father and dance at her wedding. The big day came in October.
"With a little assistance from my cane and my dad, I was able to," she said.
Jodi said the wreck and the subsequent battle to survive solidified her family.
"Before my accident, Brian, my boys and I, you could say we were four individuals," she said. "The one (good) thing that came out of my accident, we became one unit. I mean everything. We worked together and do everything together. Accidents can break a family or make a family. It truly brought our family closer."
"Since then, we've had dinner and become Facebook friends and we share our lives together," she said. "She's a wonderful woman. She, like me, has to go over that bridge because she lives in
According to blood tests conducted by the
Oh, and what about that cruise she and her family never got to take? Jodi, Brian, Nathan and Cody embarked this month. They set sail from
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