Candice McFarlane

By Joni Simon
Contributing Writer

It was an ordinary Monday afternoon in Fair Oaks Ranch in December 2006. Kathy McFarlane and her daughter, Candice, marvel now at the ordinariness of the events leading up to a traumatic occurrence that would send them on a long journey filled with hope and miracles.

“She came home from school with her friend. They wanted to go down to the country club,” Kathy said. “I had to take her brother to a martial arts class, so I said, ‘OK, I’m going to take your brother, you go down to the country club and then come home before it gets dark.’ She’s done that a bunch of times. It’s not uncommon for kids to go down to the country club.”

That day, the restaurant was closed, so the girls decided to go to the Fair Oaks Market on Ralph Fair Road to get some pizza. Candice had never done that before.

“She wasn’t accustomed to the rate of speed the cars were going on Ralph Fair Road,” her mother said. “The cars were going 60 miles an hour as opposed to 30.”

Candice was crossing Ralph Fair Road on foot when she was struck by the driver of a truck. The impact hurled her into the air. After she landed, already with multiple injuries, she was run over by a minivan.

Since the accident, the McFarlanes have cooperated with the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, telling their story to emphasize to the public the importance of donating blood.

“There were so many things that had to happen for Candice to be alive,” Kathy, a registered nurse, said. “Really the most important thing was that they had the blood on hand to give her to keep her alive in order to do everything else they needed to do.”

Kathy attributes the fact that Candice doesn’t have any long-term brain damage to the initial 22 units of blood transfusions she received immediately.

“She got hit at 6:04 p.m. She was at University Hospital at 6:23 p.m. receiving blood,” she said. “That’s why she’s able to do what she’s doing.”

Kathy can now calmly relate how an off duty EMS worker, who was the first responder, nearly pronounced Candice dead at the scene.

“He told me that when he first saw Candice’s condition, he didn’t feel that she was going to make it, so that, if it was up to him, he would have just called it. But, because he gets paid to bring people to the hospital, he worked on her, not thinking that it was going to do any good,” she said. “When he came to see me when she was in the emergency room when they were still working on her, he literally got down on his knees and took my hand and said, ‘There’s something greater at work here. I did everything that I could do, but that little girl has something that I haven’t seen in 23 years.’”

Kathy feared the odds. Candice had sustained catastrophic injuries – including a fractured right ankle and right hip; her pelvis fractured in six places; ruptured spleen; lacerated liver; bilaterial renal contusions; punctured right lung, fractured right humerus; fractured left clavicle and humerus; skull fracture with concussion in the frontal lobe … and more scratches, bumps and bruises than could be counted.  Her injuries more closely resembled an academic list of the most wretched injuries that could befall an accident victim than a real diagnosis.

Candice doesn’t remember anything about the accident. She remembers walking down the road with a girlfriend, then waking up in the hospital. She talks about her friends who still cross Ralph Fair Road at the same spot where she nearly lost her life.

“There’s a school right there. Kids are walking across the street to get something to eat,” she said. “We’re shocked that they haven’t yet put a stop sign or done something to make it safer for people. There are people crossing that street all the time to get something to eat. I just happened to be the one who got hit.”

“I really do think there should be a stoplight and crosswalk there, for sure, and the speed limit should go down,” her mother agreed. “If that had been the case that day, then this probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Candice says, she doesn’t like to dwell on what happened to her. For the most part, she says she feels grateful for being alive.

“I’ve tried not to let it change too many things in my life. I’m definitely a little bit more thankful for what I have,” she said. “I’m a little bit more mature than my other friends, who are concerned about losing their favorite pen or something when we all know there are worse things happening.”

Candice’s life has returned to a teenage routine.  She is in the ninth grade.  Thanks to at-home tutoring from her school and the continued aid of teachers who have rallied ‘round Candice to help her succeed and transcend the missed weeks of school, she was able to keep up with her studies and her peers.  Rehab can probably rectify the slight limp she still carries.  Fortunately, neither her face nor her teeth suffered damage in the accident, but she wears many scars on her body that will be lifetime reminders of the trauma she suffered.  Candice is now free of pain medication, but has endured a few setbacks – including some seizure activity and gall bladder surgery.

As mother and daughter sit together on the couch in their home in one of the most affluent cities in the area, the “Faith” decoration in bold, black letters placed prominently over the fireplace speaks volumes.

“We all go along in our lives building walls of security. We have our jobs. We have our home. We have our plans. We pay our taxes and put money in the bank. In one moment, it could just all be gone,” Kathy said.

Instead, Kathy says she’s learned to place her faith in a higher being.

“I really know that God was at work in Candice’s life. Even her doctors say that she was a miracle,” she said.