Teen likely to make full recovery after I-75 crash

The Corbin teen who barely survived a late-night auto accident on I-75 last week is talking, walking (with help) and is eager to go back to school, her mother says.
Seventeen-year-old Corbin High School senior Whitney Bunch suffered numerous life-threatening injuries after she lost control of her 1999 Chevrolet Impala last Tuesday night, flipped the car at least twice, and was thrown from the vehicle into the northbound passing lane of I-75. Her vehicle came to rest, on its top, in the median.
A truck driver noticed her lying in the road and alerted police, who got the call at about 10:30 p.m. Bunch was airlifted from Baptist Regional Medical Center to the University of Kentucky Hospital where she stayed on life-support systems until Thursday.
Bunch’s mother, Cindi Farmer, said her daughter has a few more surgeries to face this week, but family and doctors are hopeful she can be home by Christmas.
“No question about it, Whitney has been very, very fortunate,” Farmer said. “God has a plan for Whitney. There’s just so many things that’s happened that could have not been as good … He had a hand in it.”
Farmer, who has been at the hospital by her daughter’s side since the accident, said Bunch can now carry on a conversation and took a short walk to the hallway near her room Monday.
Her injuries, though severe, are not as bad as they could have been. Though she suffered a fractured skull, doctors say she doesn’t have brain damage. And while her back is fractured in four places, her spinal cord was undamaged – meaning she is unlikely to have any paralysis. Farmer said her daughter would have surgery on her broken wrist and elbow this week along with some plastic surgery.
She is expected to make a full recovery, though doctors have no timetable yet for how long physical rehabilitation will take.
“She says she is very anxious to get back to school. She misses her friends,” Farmer said.
The family is considering some home-schooling options to help her finish her senior year. Corbin High School Principal Joyce Phillips said the school system has a homebound program for students unable to attend school. The program would allow Bunch to graduate in 2006 if needed.
Police haven’t determined what caused Bunch to lose control of her vehicle. Farmer said her daughter doesn’t remember the accident.
Phillips said in her 10 years as principal of the school, about one student a year suffers life-threatening injuries in an automobile accident. Another student, Brittany Mabe, was also injured over the weekend and taken to the UK Hospital. Phillips said Mabe’s injuries aren’t as severe.
“It’s been a tragic week,” she said. “We are thankful that there’s a good prognosis for both of them.”