'Miracle Michele' has much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving
By Kimberli Turner Colorado Hometown Weekly
Posted: 11/22/2011 03:59:43 PM MST
One of the most poignant memories to return to Michele O'Donnell in the last 60 days is from her month-long stay in a hospital in Mexico nearly two years ago. She recalled lying in her hospital bed one day, waking to find her son Billy O'Donnell by her side. "Billy was rubbing my leg and rubbing my back and he was with me," she said Monday, Nov. 21. Another memory that has also surfaced was the image of her daughter, Alyssa, crying when Michele stopped breathing once in the same hospital. The two memories bring Michele to tears but, for the most part, she's been recalling only the good times from before her January 2010 accident.
Michele slipped and fell in the bathroom of her family's Cancun timeshare and she hit her head, causing a brain hemorrhage. She was in a drug-induced coma for a week during her hospital stay in Mexico and was moved to a Florida hospital where she suffered a second brain hemorrhage.
Michele was moved to Colorado in April 2010 and was in a comatose state for 45 days before doctors at Denver's Kindred Hospital adjusted a shunt that controlled the drainage in her head.
Last year at this time, Michele, who was in Boulder Manor recovering from her head trauma and receiving physical therapy, started with baby steps by coming home for Thanksgiving and a sleep-over at Christmas. This Thanksgiving, Michele, dubbed 'Miracle Michele' by her husband, John, said she has much to be thankful for. "I have John. I'm going to cry," she said Monday night at her brother-in-law's Erie home. "I love him so much, 25 years we've been married. "And then I have my babies," she added, looking at three of her children, Tana, 17, Alyssa, 15, and John John, 9, seated on the couch next to her.
Her son Billy is stationed in Los Angeles with the United States Navy and is preparing to embark on a six-month worldwide tour in December.
Michele and John sold their Superior home within two days of Michele's January homecoming and moved into her brother-in-law's home in February. The O'Donnells are having a house built in Park County which they hope they can move into by May 1.
Since January, Michele has been working on walking around the house on her own and getting back to her daily routine.
She no longer uses her wheelchair or walker and, in the last couple of months, Michele has gone from using a cane with a four-pronged base to a regular walking cane. "John said to me, 'You're done with that, walk with this,'" Michele said of her cane. "I kind of forced it upon her and I said, 'Isn't it time?'" John recalled.
But Michele was ready for the next step in her rehabilitation and she said she tries to walk around the house cane-free most of the day.
Her goal is to walk completely on her own by New Year's Eve and John hopes to buy an elliptical machine for his wife once they move into the new house. Michele has also returned to doing the laundry and other housework and she cooks for her family every day. In a means to hone her speaking skills and help her put sentences together, Michele also texts and emails friends and family daily. The memories of Michele's life are slowly coming back to her, and John said because Michele knew her family's names and faces early on, he didn't initially realize how much of her long-term memory was missing.
She now recalls her wedding day, family trips and events with friends among many other things. "I think it's ridiculous how much she's overcome," Tana said of her mom's progression. "We come home and she's busy in the kitchen and I remember when she was laying in the hospital bed. I can't wait for next year to see how she's improved."
Though Michele still has a ways to go in her recovery, John said he's thankful for every improvement she makes. "It's a lot better than the alternative a year ago," he said. We'll take on anything now. We've already been through the tough stuff."
