My mom's car accident

My mom was in a serious car accident last Saturday afternoon. She and a passenger were driving back from a retreat in Palacios when it happened. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but she lost control of the car, spun out and hit oncoming traffic.

Her passenger was her neighbor and they were both Life Flighted to Houston because their injuries were more than what their little hospital can handle. My mom had bleeding in her brain, internal bleeding and a fractured pelvis. The passenger had more injuries because some of the impact was on her side. She had broken teeth, clavicle, ribs, bleeding in the brain and a fractured pelvis. One passenger in the other car had two broken legs. We're so thankful that everyone survived that horrible accident.

My mom was driving a brand new Toyota Corolla. My dad surprised her with a new car a month earlier. She had been driving an older Nissan Sentra that had no air bags. The front and side air bags on the Corolla saved their lives. If she had been driving the Sentra, the outcome would have been much worse.

My mom and her neighbor are at Hermann Hospital in Houston now. It's been a week and they've made some progress. The bleeding in the brain was controlled by medicine and they took out a part of her small intestine to stop the internal bleeding. The biggest source of her pain right now is from the surgery and the pelvis. She'll have to be in a wheelchair for at least a couple of months. She's finally eating a clear liquid diet after having tubes in her body for 5 days. She's in a hospital room and gets physical therapy each day.

Her neighbor is still in the ICU. Although none of her injuries require surgery, her injuries will take a long time to heal. Her heart was also beating irregularly so they're keeping her in the ICU until things get better. She's been eating clear liquids for a few days and ate some solid food yesterday. We're hoping her heart will stabilize so she can move to a regular hospital room.

Please keep my mom and her neighbor in your prayers. They have a long road to recovery. These are active women who will have to learn how to use a wheelchair and rely on others for help. They've always been the caretaker and not the other way around. Thank God that they will recover.

Here are some pictures of the accident. These came from Trinh Pham, our neighbor's daughter.

Passenger side


Groceries that have flown out of the trunk. She kept telling my dad to go back to the car and get the groceries before they go bad.



All the airbags deployed. The car held up despite its size. Check out the skid marks on the road.