On September 24th Rachel Vanasse was in a severe car accident. She had a collision with a semi truck on Yankee Doodle road on her way home late that night. She was taken to the ER at Regions hospital with life threatening injuries. She was put in a medically induced coma and had an emergency craniotomy removing half her skull to allow for brain swelling to save her life. She had so many broken bones the ICU nurses couldn't take the time to count the fractures there was too many. Rachel was put on a ventilator for life support and to assist in reforming her rib cage that was crushed. Her coma lasted about 10 days and the waking up process took almost 2 weeks. Over the next few months Rachel had to learn to breathe on her own again, relearn how to swallow to work her way back to speaking, relearn how to move her hands and feet to work her way back to writing and walking and also work hard to remember her life and who she was. Rachel had both types of amnesia, long term and short term. She also, for a period of time, was unable to create new memories so everything reset after just seconds. In January she underwent cranioplasty surgery to install a titanium and plasty prosthetic to rebuild her skull as her final surgery. Rachel was discharged in January after 109 days in the hospital. She walked out of the hospital thanking every staff member she saw. She has months of rehabilitative therapy and possible lifelong challenges ahead of her, but she is happy every day and very grateful to be here ready to work hard. Her positive attitude and smile is infectious and inspiring.

Crashers will meet at 1:30 in Caspers Parking Lot. 4625 Nicols Road Eagan.

If you plan to attend, please fill out the form below.