Vermilion Catholic graduate explains how faith helped her deal with car accident

This is an extraordinary speech that Kallen LeBlanc, a graduated senior at Vermilion Catholic, delivered to the sophomore class during a recent Catholic retreat. The speech revolves around her personal experience with an accident and how her unwavering Faith played a crucial role in her survival. She titled her speech “Navigating the Real World.”
LeBlanc encountered a car accident last year in the Meaux community, which left her hospitalized for 31 days, including a period at Baylor Trauma Hospital in Dallas. Despite the setback and missing several weeks of high school, she graduated with an impressive grade point average of 3.5 and above. In the upcoming fall, she intends to pursue a nursing degree at UL-Lafayette, inspired by the exceptional care she received in the hospital.
Kallen’s parents are Corey and Lasessa LeBlanc.

Kallen’s speech:

On July 8, 2023, I was in a severe car accident. 
I was going to meet my cousin at her aunt’s house to swim. I was only a mile or two away until I got t-boned by a truck at an intersection. 
I was so close to my destination that my cousin could hear the collision.
 She immediately got in her car and drove to the scene. She could see it was my car, so she called her mom, my nanny, because they lived only a few minutes away. 
The only memory I had from the accident was the feeling of my body being compressed, and I could hear my nanny’s voice trying to calm me down. 
That was the only thing I could remember from July 8 to the 24th, even though I was conscious and communicating with my friends and family. 
Air-Med flew me to Lafayette General Hospital, where they discovered that my left lung was bruised, and I fractured some ribs, two bones in my pelvis, and some vertebrae in my back. 
Because my lung was bruised, I was losing oxygen, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so they quickly intubated me, which meant they placed a long, thick tube down my throat into my lungs. 
Until then, I talked to my family and made jokes in the E.R. 
I told them that I broke my nail in the accident and I was very upset about it. After two weeks in the hospital, I was not progressing.
 Due to the failure in my healing process, I had to be put under sedation for long periods so that my body was not stimulated and would get the rest it needed to be able to heal. 
I was still relying on the ventilator to breathe and the doctors decided that they no longer had equipment that could help me progress from this point on. 
Because of my inability to progress on the ventilator and all the other strategies that the doctors tried, the only option with a high percentage of survival was ECMO treatment at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
 This machine would allow my body to bypass the use of my lungs and filter oxygen directly into my bloodstream so that my lungs could rest, allowing the healing process to enhance itself. 
Being on ECMO during transportation made my chances of survival very slim. 
Going into ECMO treatments, my expected time for recovery on the machine was supposed to be close to a month. However, I believe that the community around me and the prayers of my family and friends allowed me to shorten my time on the machine to five days. I was off the ventilator three days later. I was on the ventilator for 17 days, causing my voice to have lasting effects. 
I was then flown back to Lafayette General, where I continued to recover and get back into my daily routine. I stayed in the hospital for exactly a month until I was healthy enough to go home. 
I continued to recover by attending physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and many other follow-up appointments. Through the recovery process, I dealt with a lot of emotional struggles, having to relearn physical movements I had used my entire life. 
Things like taking a shower or even brushing my teeth were difficult for me because of my loss of strength and mobility.
 This made my days long and enduring, as I knew that it would take a lot of time to function at my full capabilities again. 
But I was not alone during this time. My friends and family were there with me every step of the way, in my corner, rooting for me and encouraging me to continue to push through these struggles. Having the support from all of these people around me made this process so much easier for me, as I could go through the day knowing that there was always someone there to help me. But I often forgot to acknowledge the one person who had always helped me, and that was God. 
I took God for granted at most points in my life. He wasn’t always a priority until this time. The miracles that worked throughout my healing made me realize that God was necessary. 
At this point in my life, I felt that God was with me, and without Him, I would not be where I am today. 
Previous to my car accident, I was a good Catholic. I had just made my Confirmation, I went to mass every Sunday, I prayed often, and I trusted in God’s plan for my future, but that was the extent.
 I had never thought my life could have been taken so easily. I was never the kind of person who thought about death or was scared of it. 
There are only a handful of people in my life who have passed away, but with some grieving and healing, I felt at peace that God was ready to bring them to Heaven. 
One of the most recent people in my life who passed away was Ramsey Baumgardner. 
She was an 18-year-old senior at North Vermilion whom a drunk driver on Highway 167 killed. She was transported to the Lafayette General and was only alive for less than 24 hours after her accident. 
I remember when I first heard about her accident, I was in complete shock. I could see the cop cars from my house, so I stopped and prayed that God would not take her from her friends and family. 
Even though we did not have a relationship, her story impacted me. It showed that something like this could happen to anyone. 
Little did I know that it would happen to me. Despite the overwhelming odds stacked against me, I am here today to share my testimony of God’s divine intervention and prayer’s power, which helped me persevere. 
This experience has solidified my belief in God’s love and protection. Because I was so close to the end of my life, I now have a new perception that not many people can understand. I am forever grateful for His mercy and grace in my life.