College graduate beats the odds after near fatal car wreck

Following a horrific car crash in 2002, the parents of Jensen Jones were told their daughter would probably not live. If she did, she would likely spend the rest of her life incapacitated.

She beat the odds.

On Dec. 12, Jensen walked out of Coleman Coliseum carrying a degree from the University of Alabama.

With a bachelor's degree in social work in hand, Jensen will return to Tuscaloosa in January to pursue a master's degree in that field.

Her father, Barry Jones, called Jensen's graduation "something special."

He and his wife, Rhonda, own the Lee County Flea Market in Smiths Station.

Both of them and son Ben were in the accident. The family was traveling to Tuscaloosa to attend a football game between the Crimson Tide and North Texas State.

The family's Honda Accord was on I-85 by Auburn. Ala, when a Chrysler convertible crossed the median and hit the family's car head-on.

It had rained earlier in the day.

The father recalled his vehicle was on cruise control doing 75 miles per hour. Suddenly, his wife cried out, "Oh, my God, Barry."

"I only had a split second to try and brake," he said.

Everyone had been wearing a seat belt, but Jensen, then 9, had removed hers to reach for a barrette. When the vehicles collided, her head hit something metal in the car.

Their son was not badly injured, but the father suffered a fractured ankle and the mother a torn aorta and broken jaw.

As for the driver of the other vehicle, the father remarked, "He walked away."

Still in the car, Barry Jones noticed blood on his daughter but what concerned him more was her head had "swollen like a watermelon."

An emergency medical technician told him Jensen would probably die, saying, "it is very grave."

All four were taken to East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika. The mother was taken into surgery, and Jensen was flown by helicopter from Fort Benning to the trauma center of the Children's Hospital of Alabama at the University of Alabama at

Birmingham. "The doctors at East Alabama said there was nothing they could do for Jenna," the father recalled. "I told my wife Jenna was in a fight for her life."

Because of brain trauma, doctors told the parents to be prepared for the worst.

"I was told she might live but spend her life in bed staring at the ceiling. At best, she would be in a wheelchair," the father recalled. He said when he first saw Jenna in Birmingham, she had 14 tubes in her body.

It was nearly two weeks before the mother could get to see Jenna, and three more days before Jenna would wake from a coma.

When Jenna did awaken, her mother was at her bedside. Jenna asked, "Where is daddy?"

"That was exciting that she had that mental capacity," Rhonda Jones said.

She added that doctors did not want the family to overwhelm Jenna with details.

"That she woke up and knew her mother was important," the father said.

Jenna received therapy during three months at UAB and returned home.

In January of 2003 she returned to her fourth grade class. She was in a wheelchair. "I felt like a queen," Jenna recalled, smiling. "Everybody wanted to help me. The teacher had to make a rotation to see who would get to push me."

Her biggest problem was she had very little short-term memory. "Because of the injury, I have had problems with math, even in college," Jenna said.

Through the years, she has received extra time to do math problems during testing. A constant reminder of her crash: Jenna has no use of the fingers on her left hand.

That has not stopped her from playing the piano, nor did it stop her from being school mascot at Smiths Station High School or student council president there. "I like being active," Jenna said.

And she does not like being told she can't do something.

Her mother said Jenna especially dislikes being called disabled. "That really gets her dander up."

She is excited for her daughter and proud of all she has "conquered."

Before Jenna graduated from high school in 2011, she contributed to the school newspaper and originally wanted to be a journalist.

Jensen, who attended Chattahoochee Valley Community College before attending Alabama, said taking a psychology class changed her mind.

"I began to get an interest in social work and researched what social workers do," she said. "I realized there were social workers who helped me when I was injured and played a big role in my recovery."

She is positive she is taking the right career route.

"I have been through tough times," Jenna said. "Helping other people going through their tough times is what I want to do."

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 10:45 PM with the headline "College graduate beats the odds after near fatal car wreck ."