Woman Who Survived Horrific Crash Shares Her Life's Biggest Miracle, the 'Angel' Who Prayed for Her, and Her Act of Forgiveness
Four years after she miraculously survived a horrific car crash, Katie Lentz has gone back in time for the first time to talk at length about the amazing miracle that happened to her on that fateful day.
Lentz is now an administrator for the Baseball Assistance Team of Major League Baseball (MLB), charitable organization that assists families of MLB members in need of financial, medical or psychological assistance.
Last week, at the "Sports Spectrum Podcast," she shared the incredible story of her survival after being hit, head on, by a drunk driver on Aug. 4, 2013 on a road in Missouri. She was just 19 years old at that time.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
That terrible crash caused her multiple and life-threatening injuries including two broken femurs, a broken tibia and fibia, a broken left wrist, nine broken ribs, a lacerated liver, ruptured spleen and bruised lung, according to Jonathon M. Seidl in his The Courage blog.
"I was trapped in my car for over two hours. Honestly it is a miracle that I'm here today," Lentz said. "My doctors told me it was a miracle that I survived. My doctors say I should be dead, brain dead or paralyzed."
Lentz focused her narrative on the mysterious man who comforted and prayed for her while she was trapped inside the car wreck and her decision to forgive the errant driver who nearly killed her.
The praying man turned out to be the Rev. Patrick Dowling from the Diocese of Jefferson County, according to The Blaze.
Reports at that time said no one, except Lentz, saw the priest, leading some people to speculate that it was actually an "angel" who came to rescue the young woman.
"It became known as the 'mystery priest story' and it went viral," she said.
Following her recovery, she said she met the priest and struck up a friendship with him.
Lentz described the moment she met with the driver who almost killed her and caused her to spend nearly 800 days in hospital.
After the driver apologized to her during a court hearing, the judge gave her the choice of whether to accept his apology or send him to jail.
"The judge ... let me decide what happened to him," she said. "I could either send him to jail for five years or I could send him to a rehabilitation program."
It was a difficult decision, she admitted, but she chose to forgive him.
"I really believe I have forgiven him in my heart. For me it was a process. Sometimes, it's just a decision you have to make," she said.
"God turned my life upside down August 4, 2013," Lentz said. "He gave me the gift of life. He gave me a second chance when all the science and all the medicine says I should be dead. I'm breathing and living because of Him."
