Ohio bus crash survivor overcomes odds, reaches milestones
By Bob Jones
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MINERAL CITY, Ohio (WEWS) — Brynn Goedel walked out her front door, across the porch and down the steps before preparing to drive to Tusky Valley High School.
It’s a routine that she refuses to take for granted.
“It’s very nice because the steps were very difficult and now I can go down them,” Goedel said.
The 17-year-old junior, who survived a horrific chain-reaction crash that killed six people outside of Columbus last November, measures her progress day by day and step by step.
“Today I am pain-free, but tomorrow may bring something different,” she said.
Goedel’s difficult physical and emotional journey started on the morning of November 14. She, along with dozens of her Tusky Valley bandmates, were on a bus heading to a conference to perform.
A semi slammed into an SUV and the bus on I-70 in Licking County. Other vehicles were also damaged in the chain-reaction collision. The bus burst into flames.
Goedel said a man she didn’t know boarded the bus and helped carry her to safety. She suffered burns to arms and face and multiple fractures, including to her pelvis.
“The EMS came up to me asking what’s wrong and I told them I just can’t feel anything from the waist down.”
The crash took the lives of Goedel’s best friend, Katelyn Owens, and two other students, John Mosley and Jeffery Worrell, who were on the bus.
Two parent chaperones, Kristy Gaynor and Shannon Wigfield, and teacher Dave Kennat were also killed. They were in the SUV traveling behind the bus.
“I just know that they’re looking down on all of us and helping us heal and I just know that they’re with us every second,” Goedel said.
When a News 5 crew met with Goedel in January, she was using a walker and wheelchair, but it didn’t take too long for her to start walking on her own.
“I kind of feel independent now, not having to depend on people very much,” Goedel said.
The family considered her ability to a walk without assistance a remarkable feat considering the news they received a couple of days after the accident. A doctor in Columbus had told her she only had a 5 to 10 percent chance of walking again.
“Every day, she’s doing something more than what we ever thought that she would be doing. She works super hard. She goes to therapy,” said her mother, Danielle Goedel.
The teen, who hopes to walk with her band in a Memorial Day parade and march in band camp this July, is thrilled to be back at school to experience milestone moments. She went to prom in April.
“I really enjoyed that, just hanging with all my friends, and post prom, I did not rollerskate,” she said with a laugh.
Through the ordeal, Goedel said she has really learned to focus on how precious life can be.
“I think God has saved me for a reason and that reason is to help people be positive, to spread positivity.”
Goedel, who plans to study nursing in college, said she’ll continue to look for ways to spread positive vibes day by day.
“I really think that just being positive and maybe just smiling to someone in the hallway that you might never talk to will brighten someone’s day,” she said.
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