A fractured spine, two punctured lungs, a shattered pelvis and now, the miraculous recovery of a young woman hit by a train in Verdi. She's home now, after spending almost two weeks in the hospital.
Annika Kerns is on her road to recovery after a fun photo shoot took a turn for the worst.
Annika was with some friends near train tracks near South Verdi Road, taking pictures of her dog, Buster's, Instagram page. She says,
"We heard a train coming around the corner and it honked at us, so we got out of the way, including the dog."
But, when it came closer, a second honk startled Buster. He bolted onto the tracks. Instinctively, Annika rushed to save the pooch's life.
Just moments later, a train hit her straight on from behind--breaking her pelvis into seven pieces, puncturing both of her lungs, ripping the abdominal muscle off of the bones and fracturing her vertebrae.
Annika says it's a miracle she survived,
"Everybody just keeps telling me, 'You should've been cut in half, you should've been dead.' Even the train engineers said 'You should be in pieces.'"
Her boyfriend says she was thrown about ten feet from the tracks. Annika says,
"It hit me so hard, my pants ripped open, I was just laying in the snow, thinking I'm gonna die, my dog is dead."
Luckily, there were two miracles that day. Buster managed to survive by ducking underneath the moving train, between the tracks, until it stopped.
Annika blacked out for less than a minute, came to and immediately called her mom. She says,
"I said mom, don't freak out, I'm okay, but I just got hit by a train."
Her mother, a physical therapist, talked her through the ordeal until paramedics arrived.
Annika says her pelvis was so badly injured, she was unable to move and paramedics had to carry her out on a stretcher. She had emergency surgery on her pelvis, that night. Doctors say the hairline vertebrae fracture will heal on its own.
Looking back, she says, it wasn't luck that saved her life, but her guardian angels--her grandparents. Annika said, fighting back tears,
"I just kept feeling like they were there, and like they had saved my life. So that's what I thought about, a lot."
She is back at home recovering, but it will be about two months until she can fully walk on her own, again.
Now, she has some advice for anyone who has a train track photo shoot on their minds--don't risk it,
"I know people think it's such a cute picture, it's so cliche, but it's so not worth it."
In the meantime, words of support on Buster's Instagram, where she's shared her journey of recovery, have kept her spirits up.
If you'd like to check his page out, click here.
