Last year Desiree Ford was in a coma, surviving against all medical odds. Tonight she will grace the stage as one of the performers at WCI's Concert for the Cure.
WOODSTOCK - It has been almost one year since a fatal crash shook the community. The crash happened on May 4th, claiming the life of Lucas Downing and critically injuring his friend, a then 18 year old accomplished dancer and singer - Desiree Ford.
After the crash, Ford was air lifted to Victoria hospital in London and for the next 21 days, fought the biggest battle of her life. Against all medical odds, she survived.
Now, nearly one year after the crash Ford has decided to return to the stage singing a medley of two songs Iron and Wine at WCI's Concert for a Cure supporting Sakura House tonight.
Betty Ford is Desiree's mother, who says tonight will certainly be an emotional night for everyone.
"Tonight will be another one of Desiree's milestones as she steps once again onto that stage, where she basically spent four years of her life before the accident. It is monumental for Desiree because she struggles with her brain injury and the recovery and part of that is her grieving her old self and not quite used to her new self and that all comes into play when you are 19 and you worry about how you look and how people perceive you with an acquired brain injury, so the very fact that she wants to go through with this is huge and is all part of bringing back that self confidence and self esteem."
Performing again is no small feat for Ford after the kind of year she has endured. Ford remained in critical care for 23 days. During that time, her mother Betty stayed at Ronald McDonald house and essentially never left her side.
The teen suffered a laundry list of injuries, including 11 fractures, 3 of which were compound, later becoming infected due to the severity of the breaks and the car rolling in a farmer’s field. She endured a brain injury, a shattered liver, spleen aneurysm, colon tear, punctured lungs, open heart and midline. Over the course of 11 days, her body fought to combat the infections growing in her body from the dirt from the field. This later led to skin grafting and reconstruction of her right tibula and fibula as well as undergoing bone grafting of her left femur. Her left arm has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery as well as a nerve transplant. When the nerve is completely re-grown, she will have further surgery to reconstruct further, along with bone grafting.
Due to the infections, and all attempts to keep her body temperature under control, the elite dancer lost the ends of four of her toes on her left foot. She also suffered nerve damage to her feet and those nerves are re-growing as well. To add to this, she had three deep bleeds in her brain as well as both frontal-side bleeds.
The "Mighty Warrior Princess" as her mom Betty calls her was in the Critical Care Trauma Centre at Victoria hospital for 24 days, moved to the 9th floor, to the Orthopaedic trauma unit for 10 more days before coming home to Woodstock General Hospital, where not only the physical healing continued, but where the emotional healing began.
After a three-month stay at Woodstock General Hospital, Ford moved on to Parkwood Rehabilitation Hospital in London, for just under two months.
It wasn't until November 30th, when she returned to the family farm in the Innerkip area. In total, Ford spent 210 days in hospitals, including her 19th birthday in which she was in a coma for. Today, she continues to receive physical therapy with the goal to return to dancing one day.
Overcoming one obstacle after another, Ford has been working extremely hard ever since, to return to her passion - dance. The determined teen was teaching dance before the crash and can't wait to get back to it again, in the meantime singing has been therapeutic for her. Betty says her daughter has always been stubborn, driven, and motivated by art and motion.
"Desiree's passion in life is dance, so that definitely motivates her, she also wants to get back to life. I mean she is 19 and she is dreading turning 20 in May because she missed 19, she turned 19 when she was still in a coma, she is physically involved involved with her emotions and that is why she is such an incredible dancer and she loves to work with kids and that is why she is such an incredible dance teacher, that is what drives her, it is the passion for her to return to her passion, which is dance."
Event Details:
Concert For a Cure:
Where: In the auditorium at WCI
What: The talents students perform numerous musical numbers to raise money for Sakura House.
When: April 12th, 7:00 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Tickets: Visit the WCI web site here.
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