ATTLEBORO, Mass. (WPRI) — Katherine Ibanez is lucky to be alive.
Ibanez, a 31-year-old mother of two, was heading out to run a few errands on April 3, when she says she swerved to avoid another car and lost control on Parker Street.
“My car just spun all the way around,” Ibanez said. “I just felt the whole thing.”
Ibanez crashed into a chain link fence. A 12-foot fence pole pierced her windshield and went through her arm, chest and back, but she survived.
“I don’t know how I’m alive, the doctor said in the 25 years that hes been working he’s never seen anybody go through that experience and live,” Ibanez said.
According to Ibanez, doctors told her although the pole scraped her lung, it missed any major arteries.
“He said that I was just a miracle, because I was going to either get my arm cut off or if it had gone a few more inches I would have been paralyzed,” Ibanez said.
Ibanez is now recovering. There are drains in her wounds and movement is difficult and painful. She’s undergone blood transfusions and had two ribs removed. Soon she’ll schedule a third surgery to graft skin onto her back.
Despite the close call, she says she is grateful and has a message to those facing their own uphill battles: “Just keep going,” she said.
“Everyday wake up and thank God you’re alive and don’t ever doubt what you’re capable of when it comes to healing yourself.”
Ibanez said she realizes now how a life can change in a split second and she said she appreciates her life even more than she did before.
