Coral's Journey to Recovery

On the morning of May 12, 2023, Coral’s world and all the lives of those closest to her, changed in an instant. On a normal Friday morning, she headed to work, where she taught in a homeschool setting for a family with six children. In one frightful and devastating moment, the life of our beautiful girl was forever altered when another driver careened across a two-lane highway with a center, multi-directional turn lane, hitting her head on, headlight-to-headlight, in an offset front-end collision. If you're unaware, a headlight-to-headlight collision most commonly results in a fatality. In that instant, her vehicle spun out of control, ultimately landing on its side on top of the guardrail, pinning her inside and requiring a long and extensive extraction. The fact that she made it out alive is remarkable. Speaking with the first officer on scene and a gentle, kind couple that stopped to help, confirmed she had already begun the fight to survive - a fierce and strong fight to survive.

We would soon come to realize the extent of her traumatic brain injury can only be told with time. We know that she has lost a major percentage of her skull and frontal lobe of her brain. As if that isn't enough, she has suffered the loss of her left eye, broken bones, and spinal fractures. She has a long, arduous, extensive, and expensive journey to recovery ahead of her.

The brain, such a valuable and intricate piece of us, is the control center of the human body. The delicacy and contrasting durability of the brain are evident as we witness what her caregivers consider a miracle.

Let me share a bit about our precious baby girl, now 28, with you. As a child, much like her brain, she embodied contrast. She is both delicate and fierce. She has a child-like spirit while exuding the wisdom and maturity of people twice her age and older. Academically and intellectually, Coral excelled in school, not only graduating high school two years early with college credits already under her belt but with a magna cum laude distinction. She continued to college, where she completed her Bachelor's Degree within the two years she attended, also graduating magna cum laude and one of the youngest to graduate from Hendrix. Notably, she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, both the oldest and most prestigious academic honor society in the United States, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. The contrasts continue. Throughout her childhood and up until her life-altering collision, she has had a love for music and taught herself how to play the guitar and keyboard. She also has a love and passion for many forms of dance, but continuing to learn, practice, and perform ballet.

No story of Coral could be complete without sharing her love of humans and animals and her incredibly giving spirit. She has shared so much of herself through her many interests and talents. Self-professions from Coral would lead you to believe she is just an ordinary Woman, but I assure you, she is extraordinary! Coral is a selfless, admirable, and inspiring woman! Her energy and vibrancy are unmatched and can only make you smile! She has such a way of making everyone feel welcome, important, and relaxed. To know her is to love her and to know the true value of a friend. Her friendship is so special because she encourages everyone to reach their highest potential and unlock their best selves. She consistently offers a helping hand in anything - from laundry to a business plan. She courageously faces challenges and is alongside you no matter what to help you with your own! She often asks how she can personally serve more. Seriously, she’s a gem. Coral enjoys spending time connecting deeper with people, pouring goodness into all of their cups. She adores making others feel loved by handwriting cards for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries & life milestones! It’s a sweet addition to the extremely thoughtful gifts she showers everyone with, without expectations of receiving anything in return. Coral loves to share the experience of life with others and is honored to teach us new things along the way! From complicated math (she does calculus, trig, and physics for fun) to proper body mechanics in a weighted squat - her ultimate goal is to help and serve everyone around her! Plus, she’s amazing at it. She is so ambitious in her own goals, too! She is very fond of growing in her own personal development and always has new heights to reach.

Coral has so much love in her heart for the tiniest creatures, but she is a devoted dog mom on a whole other level! Her three doggies are her babies. If she could, Coral would have acres of property to care for animals. She will drop anything to ensure they are well cared for and loved. Pair those pups with cup of coffee, and her heart is full! Speaking of her furbabies, she has served her community in numerous ways, including animal rescue.

She has compassion and empathy for the delicacy of life, demonstrated by her service to Military Veterans. She even wrote a book (available on Amazon for $3.09) called The Salience of Guilt, Self-Blame and Hopelessness in Combat Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Something tells me this journey will add to her service.

She already has an affinity, education, and experience helping humans neurologically and physiologically. Coral is that friend that will encourage you when you need it most, do everything she can to help you and will keep you laughing!

She is a fierce follower of God and dutifully follows her heart and passions in His divine plan. She brightens this world with her loving embrace, her encompassing good heart, and her brilliant personality.

I think it's also important that you know Coral was frugal and financially responsible with what she and her husband earned. Coral worked full-time hours as a homeschool teacher for an amazing, loving, and generous family with six children. She is also a Monat Market Partner earning an income helping people care for their hair. She is also a tutor for Varsity Tutors helping young children all the way up to college students and spent most Sundays helping students prepare for their SATs. When she wanted extra income, she also did Shipt (a grocery delivery service) orders. They are still in their 20s and yet Coral made sure they did everything right financially to provide for themselves and protect them in their future. She intentionally created multiple streams of income to maintain financial independence and plan for the future and retirement. She has a strong work ethic and is prudent in financial planning, setting everything up responsibly. She is driven and motivated by her service to others.

We are incredibly grateful that David’s career provides health insurance. They have automobile coverage, and fortunately, the other driver was insured. However, the journey to recovery is extensive and expensive. Health, auto, and even supplemental coverage will be exhausted even with reasonable policy limits. There are no windfalls of money from a lawsuit. There are no large insurance settlements to be gotten. We are reliant on the abundant generosity of others, others who can see within themselves a gracious and giving heart.

Funds donated through this GoFundMe will go to Coral and her family to support her recovery and financial needs throughout her extensive journey of medical care and rehabilitative opportunities such as multiple surgeries, ICU, step down units, acute neuro rehabilitation, cranial and facial reconstruction surgeries, and multiple additional surgeries, durable medical equipment, financial needs, living expenses throughout her treatments and ongoing care wherever the best therapy may be to help Coral achieve the best quality of daily living without assistance. Investing raised funds to grow the financial resources availble for the long journey ahead is prudent. She will require numerous and extensive facial and cranial reconstructive surgeries. She will require extensive and expensive neurological therapies and brain healing. A minimum of one of these therapies will move her to Houston for an extended period. Her needs can not be met in Austin. This will require extensive amounts of money to be there to support her. It is anticipated that she will go into and out of various Neuro, Occupational, Physical, and Speech rehabilitative therapies as she receives various levels of treatment. We don’t yet know the extent of her journey as each path is different. We won’t know until various benchmarks what she will need next. Additionally, we don't know if or when Coral will be able to resume working and earning an income so we anticipate providing for her needs for the forseeable future.

She certainly is one of a kind, uniquely made by the hands of God. She is truly a miracle, but as I said above, the extent of her traumatic brain injury, loss of part of the frontal lobe of her brain, and loss of her left eye, amongst other injuries, will be a long, arduous, and expensive journey to recovery.

Coral’s radiance glows from within. It radiates through the twinkle of her eye and her most infectious smile. We've always told her that she has a bright light emanating from within, a light not to be dimmed nor suppressed but to be shared with the world. She lived that every day. Even in her current state, she’s still giving. Her caregivers have told us, people who see trauma, tragedy, and fatality every day, that she continues to GIVE each and every day they see her. Each day with Coral restores their faith and hope that anything is truly possible.

We have a lot of work to do, and your generous donation helps us get that important work done. Coral had big plans for her mark on the world and had been sharing what her future might look like. Please find it in your heart to share abundantly so Coral’s story is one of recovery and triumph so she can continue on to make her mark in the world, serving others, sharing her gifts and her light with others.

With Love, Light, and Immense Gratitude,

Michelle, Rick, and Coral's family.

(This fundraiser was started by Coral's Mom)