Crash survivors recover
Liberty students begin to heal after being involved in road-related accidents
It has been nearly a month since 22-year-old Liberty University student Kung Jin Oh, known by her friends as Kendra, was hit by a tractor-trailer Oct. 17. The accident placed Oh in critical condition and threatened to end her life. Now she is slowly beginning to recover.
Oh is an exchange student from South Korea. She was crossing the intersection at Odd Fellows Road near the university’s Annex dorms at the time of her accident. Freshman Courtney Sullivan, a friend of Oh’s who lives on her hall and has known her since school started, recalls the night of the accident.
Hope — Devin Nicholson is currently in an inpatient rehabilitation program. Photo provided
“She’s very fragile,” Sullivan said. “She’s less than 100 pounds. I was at Wal-Mart with my friend, and when we came back, they had just taken her to the hospital and people were outside praying for her.”
The accident took place by the intersection on Odd Fellows Road, which has become a notorious for being difficult for pedestrians to cross.
“I visited her at Lynchburg General a day after her accident,” Sullivan said. “It helped me a lot, because she didn’t even look like an 18-wheeler hit her. She had two scratches on her and she was really swollen, but it was already amazing how we thought it would be so much worse. I thought she was going to die originally.”
During Convocation Oct. 24, it was announced that Oh was expected to make a full recovery.
“She’s back to her hilarious, funny, laughing self,” Sullivan said. “She’s been walking. She’s walked without a helper, so she’s walking on her own. She didn’t even have to have surgery for her shattered pelvis. It healed that quickly by itself. She’s talking. She has to whisper, because I think her throat is still swollen.”
Despite the injuries, Sullivan said that Oh really wants to go back to school.
“She’s very impatient about being in the rehabilitation center, because she just wants to be here learning,” Sullivan said. “She can’t wait to be back, but she still has a couple of weeks of regaining her strength. She wants to come back in January.”
Recovery — Friends visit Kung Jin Oh at the hospital as her health restores. Photo provided
Oh is not the only Liberty student who has been involved in an accident this semester. Four days before Oh’s accident, Liberty student Devin Nicholson and her boyfriend Patrick J. Lo were placed in critical condition Monday night, Oct. 13, after a car wreck involving a deer.
According to police and witness reports, the pair was heading south on the Lynchburg Expressway toward Candlers Mountain Road when a deer jumped into the road. Their Honda hit the deer, which passed through the windshield, and then the car drove off the road into a utility pole.
Lo was released from the hospital after receiving treatment for cuts, but more than a month after the accident, Nicholson remained in critical condition and sedated in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit (ICU). She suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. She was moved from the Neuro ICU to the Neuro Intermediate Care Unit Nov. 2 after her vitals stabilized.
Kristy Cruz, the fiancée of Nicholson’s brother Chase, created a Facebook page titled “Pray For Devin,” consisting of frequent updates on Nicholson’s condition and prayer requests the family wants answered.
“That information is what the Nicholson family would really like to be known to the public,” Cruz said. “Any extra information is really wished to be kept private at this time, since Devin can’t really tell us what her wishes are, as she is still in a coma. (Our family would appreciate) prayer for continued healing as Devin begins rehab, prayer that God would provide help with financial burdens and prayer that the Nicholson family will be able to be together for the holidays.”
On the Facebook page, Cruz revealed that Nicholson was moved to an inpatient rehabilitation facility in Georgia that specializes in brain trauma, as she is now showing signs of improvement.
“Devin gave us a thumbs up — not just a twitch but a solid thumbs up,” Cruz wrote on the Facebook page. “It took a lot of work and concentration, but she did it. We all cheered and were so excited. She closed her eyes and rested again. She is also beginning to make eye contact and small movements with her right arm. No voice or sounds yet and still a lot of blank stares, but we have been given hope that we will see that beautiful smile and hear that sweet voice soon. It has been too long since we have seen a smile.”
On the most recent update, Nov. 29, Cruz said Nicholson’s condition has improved and that she is emerging from her coma. Nicholson has displayed more responsive actions and gestures and is currently undergoing physical, speech and occupational therapy.
“She is pushed hard but just the right amount,” Cruz said. “We are keeping visits strictly to family members due to the therapy schedule and the need for privacy and rest as she relearns many basic skills and the stress this causes.”
Janney is the asst. news editor.