‘She’s Going To Be Fine’: Two Teens Who Cheated Death Find a ‘Fated’ Miracle Love 6 Years Later
From coma to car crash, two survivors find connection, faith and love after life-changing injuries
Key Takeaways
- Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard both survived "unsurvivable" brain injuries in 2018.
- After a brief meeting during recovery, the two reconnected six years later via Facebook.
- The couple is now engaged and hosts the "Hope in Healing" podcast to inspire others
He survived a stroke at a football game. She survived a car crash that left her with a traumatic brain injury. But neither could have guessed their challenges would lead to their greatest blessing! Here, Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard share their story with Woman’s World.
Zach Zarembinski was browsing Facebook when he saw a photo of a young woman — Isabelle Richard — standing alongside her doctor, smiling ear to ear. After six long years, she had finally completed her neurological recovery.
“Fantastic!” Zach celebrated, showed the picture to his mom and asked, “Do you still have their phone number? I want to take Isabelle out to congratulate her on her recovery.”
Zach had a good reason to celebrate Isabelle’s recovery. It began in 2018 at St. Paul’s Regency Hospital, when he and Isabelle had both nearly died.
Zach, an 18-year-old high school football star at the time, had collapsed on the bench midway through a game because of a blood clot in his brain. Surgeons removed the clot, but his brain pressure spiked, so they medically induced a coma to give his body time to heal.
Nine days later, Isabelle was driving to work when an oncoming car forced her to swerve and crash into a large tree.
“If she does survive, she’s likely to need around-the-clock nursing care for the rest of her life,” doctors advised her mom and stepdad — the very same prognosis they’d given Zach’s folks.
A spark of hope
Miraculously, a few days after Isabelle’s accident, Zach woke up. Within 24 hours, he was standing and taking his first steps. Soon, he was ready to go home. But first, reporters asked the popular local athlete to share his story.
“Everyone’s prayers made the difference,” he said, and watching on TV, Isabelle’s mom, Esther Wilzbacher, felt inspired by him.
“I have to meet him,” she decided. “He survived his coma; maybe he can give us hope.”
Esther reached out to Zach’s mom, Tracy, and speaking with Zach helped her to keep believing Isabelle would also beat the odds.
And a few days later, that’s just what happened.
“We should visit Isabelle,” Tracy told her son, and during their time together, Zach told her parents, “She’s going to be fine. Somehow, I just know it.”
The teens posed for a photo together — their first and only meeting for the next six years.
True love blossoms
Within weeks, Zach was back at school, graduating with his class, and then he joined his father on the job installing fiber cables.
Isabelle’s recovery was slower and far more difficult. She had to relearn to speak, eat and walk.
Zach’s mom joined Isabelle’s prayer chain, and one day, the Facebook algorithm placed Isabelle’s picture in Zach’s feed.
Knowing first-hand the struggles Isabelle had overcome, he thought, She must be a very strong individual — someone I’d like to get to know.
With his mom’s help, Zach reintroduced himself and arranged a dinner for their families to get together.
“I don’t really remember his visit, my mind was so foggy,” Isabelle fretted after Zach reached out, but she looked forward to exchanging stories and spending time with someone who had also survived a traumatic brain injury.
At the restaurant, something clicked between Zach and Isabelle. They laughed over their many missteps during recovery and discovered they shared the same abiding faith and belief in the power of prayer.
“Can I get your phone number?” Zach asked, and soon, the two were chatting, going for long walks and talking about life, faith and healing.
They even created a YouTube podcast, Hope in Healing, to share their stories and the faith that delivered them through their darkest hours.
And somewhere along the way, they fell in love — and they shared that story, too.
One day Zach told Isabelle, “I’ve arranged for us to record our next podcast at the hospital — back where our story began.”
The nurses and doctors remembered the couple fondly, and over 100 hospital employees gathered for the recording.
As always, Zach opened with a Bible reading. Then he turned and asked, “Isabelle, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” Isabelle burst into tears as a white curtain opened, exposing a giant floral heart, and the room burst into cheers and applause.
The couple is planning a September wedding, but for Zach, their love was fated from the start.
“The night of that family dinner, I went home and wrote in my journal, Tonight, I met the one.”
“We were meant to be together,” agrees Isabelle. “Our spirits are already entwined.”
Conversation
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