OREM, Utah — September 21st started out like any other Wednesday for Jenny Nelson. “I have my four kids, and I think they still need me," she said. "I need them."
“I just dropped off my son at school, and then I remember walking up the stairs," she said. "Then after that I don't remember anything.”
All she remembers is waking up a week later in Timpanogos Regional Hospital.
“Somebody was driving behind me and said I was driving erratically," she said. "And so they called it into the police, and then I ran through a red light.”
Chief Jason Earl with the Orem Fire Department was outside the Station #3 on 1200 West when he saw Jenny’s car roll up onto the curb. He went to check what was going on and found her locked inside, having a seizure.
“To have Deputy Chief Earl, who happens to be cross-trained as a police officer, just down the block, respond, that has a slim jim in his car, I mean, I don't have a slim jim in my car, and most of our rigs don't carry slim jims these days," said Shaun Hirst, Assistant Chief with Orem Fire Department.
At an Orem City Council meeting Wednesday night, Jenny reunited with some of those first-responders who saved her life that morning.
“The men and women in our career, they don't always get to see the good outcomes as often as they see bad outcomes," said Hirst. "For them to be able to see the full circle and be recognized, these are calls they're going to remember if the rest of their lives.”
Doctors told Jenny her heart stopped. If that had happened just five minutes earlier, or later, Jenny thinks she probably wouldn’t be here.
"When I was in the hospital, they put me in a medically-induced coma and told my husband I probably won't make it," she said. "Or if I do, I won't have the mental capacity that I did, but I made it.”
Though doctors are still not sure why this happened to Jenny, she’s grateful that her life fell into the right hands.
