DETROIT – Doctors told a Metro Detroit mother that her daughter would likely die after blood vessels in the teen’s brain suddenly ruptured.
The family knew the odds were stacked against the 15-year-old girl. Despite the odds, the teen miraculously survived.
At one-point doctors believed Mionna Johnson was brain dead.
Before she ended up in the ICU, she was an honor roll student who spoke three languages.
With her daughter on the brink of death the mother sold her salon to be by the teen’s side.
“I’m so happy. I really, I’m just happy,” said Tiffany Bernard, whose daughter managed to survive the brain aneurysm.
Johnson is finally back home with her mother. Last September, the Canton Township teen went from being perfectly healthy to nearly dying.
“We were in the living room just singing and dancing to her favorite K-Pop group BTS. And she just fell to the floor and said, ‘Oh my God my face looks like my brain just exploded.”’ said Bernard.
She was rushed to the hospital. Doctors stated her daughter had likely suffered a brain aneurysm and would not survive.
“I knew it wasn’t over, and that’s why I started demanding she go somewhere else,” said Bernard.
The teen was airlifted to Children’s Hospital.
“Beaumont said that she could deteriorate in the air. So, I drove from Westland to Detroit, doing about 100 miles trying to rush there before the helicopter got there. I knew I wouldn’t make it, but I wanted to see if she would still be alive,” said Bernard.
Bernard says every second of that drive felt like an eternity.
“It was horrible. It was horrible because I didn’t know she was. I didn’t know she was going to be alive. You know, and it was worst,” said Bernard.
When she got to Children’s Hospital Johnson was barely clinging to life and rushed into surgery.
“They said that it just wasn’t looking good and that she may never regain consciousness. If she did, she’d be paralyzed from the neck down. She’d be on the ventilator,” said Bernard.
Johnson would spend the next 117 days in the hospital. Bernard only left her side once.
“I truly believe that I heard from God to do that in the first place. I knew that the doctors could only take us so far. And then I had to have, you know, I had to have my faith,” said Bernard.
After months of grueling physical therapy against all odds Bernard is slowly recovering.
“She’s getting her strength back. She’s able to stand and walk. And I just really, it’s a miracle honestly,” said Bernard.