Our 2018 grant recipient is Ashley Murray.

 

On December 22, 2017, Ashley Murray was injured in a horrific car accident.

After a night out with friends, Ashley and her friend Blake did the responsible thing and called an Uber in order to make their way home safely from Redondo Beach. Sadly, tragedy struck when a drunk driver ran a red light at a high rate of speed and hit the Uber that they were passengers in. Blake suffered serious injuries but fortunately was released from the hospital after a week. Ashley, however, was critically injured with a ruptured spleen, and more seriously, a traumatic brain injury.

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Only hours after the accident, two Neurosurgeons at Harbor UCLA Medical Center who evaluated her were very pessimistic about Ashley’s chances of having a recovery that would provide her any quality life.

In the three weeks following the accident, Ashley underwent 6 surgeries, including the removal of her spleen, a craniotomy, tracheotomy, PEG Tube insertion, Carotid Artery repair and a shunt to remove excess cerebrospinal fluid from her brain.

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On Saturday, January 13, 2018, after 23 days in a coma, Ashley regained consciousness and began responding to questions by wiggling her toes as she was unable to communicate verbally due to the tracheotomy and/or continued brain dysfunction. Given that her initial prognosis by the Neurosurgeons at Harbor/UCLA was very grim for any possibility for recovery and/or quality of life, this was truly the beginning of a miracle!

Almost 2 weeks later, on January 25th, Ashley spoke her first words, at which time it became apparent that she is still “Ashley”, caring, funny, loving, sarcastic, sassy, sensitive, smart and sweet! Since that time, Ashley has begun walking, sitting and eating a bit and she has started to regain the use of her arms and hands which had remained paralyzed.

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Ashley still has a long road ahead of her, however her Neurosurgeon at Kaiser Permanente has told her that he expects her to make a full recovery! While she faces yet another surgery to replace the bone flap in her skull in late March, as well as extensive Occupational and Physical Therapy after that, she is talking about and looking forward to returning to the University of Arizona, where she was set to graduate in May 2018 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health, and then pursuing her ultimate goal of attending Nursing School and becoming a NICU Nurse!

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Please join us on April 21 in support of Ashley and her recovery ahead!!!