Family: Victim's spinal cord wasn't severed after crash

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The family of a Poplar Bluff, Missouri, woman seriously injured when her car was struck by a suspected drunken driver leaving Brick's Off Road Park has been told her spinal cord was not severed, as doctors originally thought.

Lori S. Garner underwent surgery early Tuesday morning at Saint Louis University Hospital and information about the outcome came later in the day, said Cindy McIver, who, like Garner, works for the Poplar Bluff School District.

Many friends and family, including McIver, saw an update about Garner's condition in a message posted on Facebook by Chelsea Nelson, in which she wrote they had received "good news and not so good news" from doctors about her mother.

"The good news is that her spinal cord was not severed at all!" Nelson wrote. "Her neck was completely broke in (two), and in my opinion, this is another miracle."

Doctors, according to earlier reports, had told family members the 50-year-old's spinal cord had been severed around the base of her neck and had not given "a lot of hope" for Garner to walk again or have feeling below her neck.

Nelson further said her mother's spinal cord is "very bruised, and the concern is that when they put everything back in place it could have cause(d) more swelling."

That, she wrote, could cause her mother "not (to) breath(e) as well."

Doctors, she said, are going to "try to wean her off the breathing machine over the next couple of days."

Nelson further indicated the family would keep everyone updated.

" *... God is in control, and we are trusting in him to take care of this!" Nelson wrote. "Thank you for your prayers!"

A former special education teacher for the school district, Garner reportedly now works in the central office as one of the district's coordinators for special ed.

Garner and her husband, Darrin, who is the sales manager at Harry Blackwell Dodge at Dexter, Missouri, live on County Road 484, the same road where Brick's is.

Garner reportedly was headed toward home when the accident happened at 5:45 p.m. Friday.

She was northbound on Route F when her 2010 Kia Optima allegedly was struck by a 2007 Chevrolet pickup, which was pulling a trailer loaded with five all-terrain vehicles.

Jeremy S. Sykes, 34, of Dyersburg, Tennessee, was eastbound on County Road 484 when he allegedly failed to stop his truck at a stop sign and drove into the path of Garner's car.

It is a "clear-cut crash," Missouri State Highway Patrol Lt. Jeff Vitale said earlier. "He pulled out in front of that vehicle from 484.

"We suspect (Sykes) was impaired. We got a search warrant for his blood."