TOOELE COUNTY, Utah -- A young woman recovering from a brain injury made her first outing in four months Thursday night, and she was welcomed by a gymnasium full of supporters at her former high school.
Kendal Levine, 24, was serving a mission in Australia for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Levine has received support on places like Facebook, and Thursday she watched her former girl’s basketball team play at Stansbury High School. Each player on Stansbury’s team wore a shirt bearing No. 10, which was Levine's number when she played for the team.
Levine’s mother, Melodie, said her daughter has defied the odds.
"It's been 4 months,” she said. “She's actually come a long way. She's recovering a lot faster than she should be recovering. She's come out of everything that the doctors said she would never come out of."
Melodie Levine said that Kendal is now able to talk and her long-term memory is working. She said her daughter’s short term memory and some of her movements are taking longer to recover.
Kendal Levine's family said she intends to finish the last six months of her LDS mission after she has adequately recovered.
