She has no memory of the crash, or the days following. No memory of the visitors who came to wish her well, or those who worried she’d die.
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Stephanie White has a gap in her memory following a near-death experience, but as she tells it: that’s not a concern. She’s happy to be alive, and happy to be focusing on herself.
“The Stephanie people know and love,” she said with a chuckle.
To hear White laugh is quite remarkable. She sat down with 7 Action News ahead of her final rehabilitation visit. On Thursday, she’ll hop on her bike like she has so many times before and ride a few miles with the Biking Belle Isle bicycle club. It may sound simple, but it’s a story that wasn’t imaginable a few short months ago.
White was leading a 25-mile bike ride last year when a reckless driver swerved and crashed into her. White was thrown over a short brick wall in a neighborhood on Detroit’s west side. She and another rider, Mike Greer, was initially listed in critical condition. Greer would have been crushed under the car at the corner of West McNichols and Parkside had it not been for the very wall that White was thrown over.
“We went out for a daily bike ride on a nice, warm sunny June day,” explained White. “Here it is a year later and I’m still in physical therapy, like: ‘What happened?’”
White wasn’t responsive when medics reached her. She would slip into a coma for six days, by the time she came to doctors had to place her in an additional medically-induced coma due to brain swelling.
She would eventually suffer from an aneurysm that is believed to be linked to her injuries. White would also need a tracheotomy and a steel rod placed in her leg. Months of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy was needed — but she always had the goal of returning to her bike.
“It hasn’t been easy,” said White. “It’s like being a baby trying to learn how to do everything all over again. In your head you know what you’re trying to say, or what you want to do, but the body doesn’t cooperate. That was the worst of it.”
She never gave up. According to her, her mother was her rock. Her mother attributes both of their strength to God.
The perseverance has paid off, just a week before the one year anniversary of her accident White was back on the bicycle for the first time. She rode one mile. Later that week she hoped to ride 5 miles, to prove to herself she could perform in a group ride memorializing her and Mike Greer’s survival. She ended up riding for nine miles.
“It felt like pure joy,” said White. “It felt kind of like the first time I was able to get up out of the wheelchair. I didn’t want to stop because I thought if I stopped I may not be able to get on it again.”
It turns out she’s gaining back more strength than anyone imagined. White will be apart of the ride beginning at the Detroit Police Department’s 12th precinct on Thursday morning. Members of the Biking Belle Isle bike club will meet her at 9:45 a.m. with a ride beginning at 10:15 a.m. The goal is to ride tot he crash site and host a small ceremony before routing themselves back to the police station.
White said she’s already received messages from some who can’t come, but the support matters more than the appearances. She said they could have done the ride on a Saturday, or a Sunday, but the date meant a lot to her. At least 20 riders are expected to be at the ride now dubbed “Triumph over Tragedy.”
