“A lot of people say, I'm so sorry this happened to you! I'm not sorry it happened to me because it's completely changed me as a person.”
Lindsey Crouch shares about her life-threatening accident on the family farm as a distracted mule side-kicked her in the face. “It wasn't a facetious thing. She was trying to get away from the dog.”
Lindsey expresses thankfulness for the life-saving actions taken by her family before first responders arrived. One of her sons relayed critical vital signs to 911, who then relayed to a medical team. Severely injured and in danger of losing her life, Lindsey was airlifted from Mayfield, Kentucky, to a trauma-equipped hospital 145 miles away.
Her multiple injuries included a jaw broken in eight places, a shattered eye socket, and a ripped carotid artery, leading to numerous complex surgeries. For doctors, the nicked artery was the immediate life or death concern.
“I woke up in Nashville” at TriStar Skyline Medical Center.
So, there's actually no memory of what occurred?
“No.”
Doctors said her survival was a miracle, as most patients with similar injuries would have "expired" before reaching a hospital.
Lindsey faced what you might call a ‘health Goliath.’
“It broke the palette of my mouth. It only knocked one tooth out, which is absolutely mind blowing. So, I guess I took really good care of my teeth,” Lindsey jokes. “And then I ended up having to have my jaws wired shut, but not in the typical way. They ended up putting, I called it like a medieval torture trap in my mouth. I had eight screws put in the top of my mouth and eight screws put in the bottom of my jaws and they had wires through it all. And I ended up with a feeding tube for six weeks.”
Much of the ordeal is behind her, but there will be plastic surgery and dental procedures ahead.
We’ve shared this much with you to help you see how devastating this injury has been, but in spite of that, Lindsey boldly says, “God showed up, like God was everywhere. And it was like he was beside me the whole way and everything lined up when they said, I shouldn't be alive, but God, I don't know how you can go through something like this and not have God on your side and not have a church family and not have friends that literally will pray over you because God still does miracles and I'm a walking miracle!”
We interviewed Lindsey on her first day back to school as a special education teacher. “This is year 15 for me. I've been at Mayfield Elementary School for the past 10 years and it's an amazing school system. It's an amazing district. And I teach the moderate to severe special ed students. So, I work with a lot of autistic students. I work with severe behaviors, I work with nonverbal kids, and I've done that for the last eight years. And I love my job, but I was actually just recently hired at another district to be a guidance counselor and get to counsel students. So, I will start that job in about 30 days.”
And Lindsey’s faith is always with her, at home, and at school. “My favorite Bible verse is John 13, 7. 'You don't understand now what I'm doing, but one day you will.' And I'm a firm believer that everything that has happened, God has allowed it to. And I pray that I can use all of those things to align with how I can help other people.”
As we closed our podcast interview, which you can hear here, Lindsey made a very kind offer, “If there's somebody I can help, I would love to be able to talk to them and reach out to them. That is why I've kind of kept a diary on Facebook and my praises and prayers because that's why I'm here. The prayers have got me this far and if I can help somebody else ... a lot of people say, 'I'm so sorry this happened to you.' I'm not sorry it happened to me because it's completely changed me as a person. It's completely changed me as a mom. It's changed me as a wife and I just want to be where God's called me to be, doing what God's called me to do.”
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