A couple who met in an intensive care unit while battling traumatic brain injuries as teenagers have announced their engagement after their miraculous recoveries.
Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard were separately admitted to the ICU at Regions Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota while they were teenagers in 2018 and woke from week-long comas just days apart.
Zarembinski was just 18 when he was admitted after suffering from a brain injury while playing high school football.
Nine days later, Richard was hospitalized following a horrific car wreckage on her way to work. She was 16 at the time.
After a week, Zarembinski miraculously woke from his coma and participated in a news interview about his tragic accident and road to recovery.
The news segment coincidentally played on the TV in Richard’s hospital room while she was still in a coma, catching her mother’s attention.
Her mom, Esther, reached out to the football player for advice about her daughter’s devastating car crash.
Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard were both merely teens when they met and bonded over their remarkable recoveries from their brain injuries
They both woke from week-long comas just days apart about seven years ago – now they’re engaged
The football player shared kind words of hope and wisdom, assuring the family that their daughter will survive.
‘He was telling us she’ll be okay,’ Esther told KARE 11. The distressed mother also told the boy she wanted them to meet once she woke up.
A few days later Richard woke up and slowly began to recover. The two brain injured teens met and snapped a smiling photo together during their brief interaction.
Six years of radio silence passed between them.
‘I said a couple of kind words to Isabelle, and that was it for six years,’ Zarembinski said.
Their mothers kept in contact over the years, occasionally reaching out on social media.
Zarembinski’s mom, Tracy, suggested he take Richard out to lunch a few times, but at the time ‘he just wasn’t ready,’ he said.
Finally, after six years the two families met up for dinner. The rest was history for the pair.
Zarembinski got Richard’s number, they went on a date, and now they’re headed toward marriage.
After six years the two families met up for dinner, and the rest was history for the pair
Zach popping the big question as their families and former nurses emotionally watched
The couple even started a podcast together, called the Hope in Healing Podcast, and recently went back to where it all started – Regions Hospital in Saint Paul.
Zarembinski popped the big question as their families and former nurses watched, filled with emotion and ‘tears of joy.’
A stunned Richard said yes and celebrated the biggest milestone of their lives, surrounded by caregivers who aided her almost ten years ago.
‘We’re just blessed to have a front row to their miracle’ Esther said.
The couple’s journeys to recovery were so alike that, even in the early days of their treatment, both had parts of their skulls removed to relieve brain swelling.
‘It’s opposite sides of our brain so it’s kind of like we complement each other in that way,’ Richard said. ‘Things that I’m bad at, he’s good at.’
