Seven years ago, high schoolers Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard both experienced a traumatic brain injury, leaving them in a coma at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Both of their families were given little hope of their recovery.
At the time, Zach Zarembinski's was 18 years old and in a coma as a result of a traumatic brain injury sustained playing football.
Nine days later, Isabelle, who was only 16, was injured in a car accident while on her way to her job at a grocery store.
Isabelle's mother, Esther Wilzbacher, was in the hospital with her daughter still in a coma when she saw a hospital news conference on TV with Zach, who had just emerged from his coma after over a week.
Wilzbacher told KARE
My husband and my sister said, ‘Let's go down. They're going to give us hope.'
Wilzbacher and Zarembinski's mother kept in touch through Facebook, and when Isabella woke up from her coma, they met up at the hospital and introduced the two TBI survivors.
Zach said that he,
Said a couple kind words to Isabelle and that was it for six years.
After that meeting in the hospital, the two teens went their separate ways, but their moms stayed in touch over the years.
Then last year, the two families got together for a reunion of sorts, and Zach asked for Isabelle's number and they have been together ever since.
The pair even started a podcast together.
And in a very special episode they revisited the hospital where their story started, and during the recording, Zach went down on one knee and asked Isabelle to marry him.
Of course, she said yes.
What started as a traumatic event for the two families ended up bringing them together for a lifetime.
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