Manitoba health-care aide fights for life in hospital 2 weeks after deadly crash
CBC
Friends and loved ones are rallying behind a Manitoba health-care worker who was nearly killed in a fatal car crash two weeks ago and remains in hospital with extensive injuries.
While Jenny Belmes is fighting for her life, her spouse said doctors believe she's unlikely to make a full recovery.
"There's just so many machines keeping her alive, so many tubes in her body," her spouse Steven Duong said. "She is fighting and I know that there is a piece of her still in there."
The 40-year-old health-care aide was driving to a night shift at a care home in Arborg, Man., on Oct. 1 when RCMP said a car driving the other way on Highway 7 crossed the centre line and struck her vehicle around 10 p.m.
The other driver, a 35-year-old male from Carvel, Alta, was pronounced dead at the scene.
"I still think about it every single night," Duong said. "It's an extremely long uphill battle to see if there are any chances that pieces of Jenny can come back."
Belmes was airlifted to hospital in critical condition with a fractured pelvic bone and ribs, brain trauma and injuries to her eyes, legs and chest.
She was intubated and spent nearly a week on a ventilator in a coma. She went through brain surgery, bowel and stomach surgery.
Duong tries to keep her family and friends in the Philippines updated on her status by journaling and updating a website he has called "Jenny's Recovery."
While Belmes is now breathing on her own, she's unresponsive and the full extent of her injuries are still unknown.
"They have told me that she's going to be here for a very long time," Duong said. "The muscles have atrophied and she is likely going to lose function in her right arm."
The night of the crash still replays in Duong's mind.
Belmes would text him when she arrived at work, Duong said. When he hadn't heard from her by midnight, he knew something was wrong.
After trying to reach her at work, police called and said she'd been in a crash.