Guardian angel, prayers, family help woman survive horrific plane crash

She remembers the every detail of the horrific plane crash
in 2008 that burned over 80 percent of her body.

Stephanie Nielson thought it would be the end for her as
the plane went down. She blacked out, and woke again in
the midst of fire and flames. She got her seat belt off as
terrible thoughts of her family raced through her head.
She didn’t want them to know that she died of these
horrible burns.

Nielson managed to find an EMT who had just arrived at the
crash site. Before sliding into a three and half-month-
long medically induced coma, she took some pain medication
and blacked out
again.

Nielson told 770 AM The
Truth’s David Boze that when she woke, pain slightly
numbed, she thought the doctors were kidding with her. She
had missed two of her children’s birthdays among all of
the major world events that had happened over those last
three months.

“Then the pain kicked in.” No longer under the protective
shield of her coma, she started to feel
the pain of her frightening burns, and her long road to
recovery began.

Her family had been taking turns coming down to visit from
Utah, to be at her bedside in Arizona. Even with support,
everyday had become a fight to stay alive, to bear
the pain, to make it through rehabilitation therapy.

Nielson had to fight herself, her own vanity, fears of
acceptance the first time she saw her husband at the
hospital.

“I felt ashamed and I felt ugly and I really had
to work on feeling beautiful again and confident,” Nielson
said. “He told me one day that it didn’t matter what I
looked like, and I believed him – because he looked at me
the way he looked at me before the accident.”

After six months away in the hospital, grinding away at
therapy, watching her family trickle in and trickle out,
never wanting to leave her bedside, she made the decision
to go home. She decided the best type of therapy would be
to go home and be a mom again – so that’s what she did.

Nielson says the lessons she’s learned because of the plane crash are ones she hopes to pass on to her children. (Justin Hackworth Photo/NieNieDialogues.com)

Despite her painful, horrific experience, Nielson said
she wouldn’t change anything about it.

Now, she said she’s been grateful for the challenge. She
can see who people are, for what they are on the inside.
That’s how she wants her children to love people.

The transcending experience of the crash and continued
recovery has been a blessing too. When she was in the
crash, Nielson said she heard something.

“I heard a voice
telling me to roll. I believe it was an angel,” she said.
“I felt the presence of my grandmother.”

In the hospital, as family surrounded her, she said she
felt more than their presence. She felt the prayers. Not
just those made at her bedside, but prayers from all
around the world.

“I believe in the power of prayer. I
know this and I believe this. And that’s why I overcame
all of these troubles.”

Nielson said the lessons she’s learned since the terrible
plane crash that she remembers so vividly, are some of the
most valuable. Even though it’s been horrific,
frightening, terrible and painful at times, “I would do it
again – just to gain some of these insights, because it
helped me – and my children.”

Stephanie Nielson is the author of “Heaven Is Here.”