State Fair victim defies odds

PENDLETON, Ind. (WISH) - Days ago the mother of a four year old lie in a coma.  Andrea Vellinga, 30, was caught in the collapse at the State Fair.

For weeks, Vellinga couldn’t open her eyes. She couldn’t breath own her own and doctors said she was minutes away from dying. But today, she’s out of the coma and communicating with her family by writing on a dry-erase board.

Her brother, Tyler Voss, says the community played a role in her remarkable recovery.

"You saved her life,” Voss told an audience of nearly 400 at church service held in his sister’s honor. “Through your prayers and through the way that you have supported my family … you’ve done so much.”

Andrea Vellinga lie in a coma with a crushed skull, collapsed lung and three broken vertebrae.

But her brother Tyler Voss has held on to hope.

Sunday, he was the guest speaker at Catalyst Church in Pendleton. During the service, which honored Vellinga, many wiped away tears as they were reminded of how far Vellinga has come.

“Her head was enormous. If you ( haven’t ) seen head trauma it is the most awful thing you have seen.”

Voss told the crowd a doctor had to perform a procedure that would reduce the swelling in Andrea’s brain.

“If he missed it that could mean brain damage,” Voss sad.

It is an amazing blessing. She is able to write her name and the names of other people.

Voss says his sister first wrote her daughter and husband’s name.

Plus, she's showing her sense of humor joking around with her brother. He told the story of how he asked his sister if she wanted to write him a note on his forehead before he left for the day.

“I was expecting Andrea to write Bye Ty or Don’t go or I love you ….. but she didn’t”

Instead, his sister wrote on his forehead “No.”