Keira Vidikan was like most happy and healthy six-year-old girls. But one day, just before her ballet class in Dayton, Ohio, she started complaining that she had a headache. That headache was the first symptom of a condition that brought Keira to the brink of death.
This year, we were honored to share some of the most heartwarming stories of inspiration, amazing stories of survival and bravest heroes – both big and small. As 2012 comes to a close, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on some of those stories. We hope they warm your heart as much as they did ours.
Stacy Martinez, 25, had just given birth to twin girls via Cesarean when she suddenly became unresponsive. Staff quickly learned that Stacy had developed an amniotic embolism. It had stopped her heart and, at best, she had only a 40 percent chance of survival.
In the blink of an eye, life can change. What we often feel will remain forever can be swept away in an instant and the chasm of pain and emptiness left behind can be paralyzing. Jennifer Lawson, 31, knows this pain well. She felt it when she nearly lost her daughter, Alice.
Trudy Hilary walked in on every mother’s worst nightmare: her two-year-old son, Zach, collapsed, lying on the floor and groaning. He’d had a heart attack.
In what seems like nothing short of a miracle, a 4-year-old boy fell 70 feet from the railing of a downtown Miami high rise hotel. The boy managed to bounce from trees, landing safely in the dirt with no broken bones.
