THE MIRACLE WOMAN

By every account Shannon Kerr shouldn’t be alive today. Or at best she should be a lifeless vegetable most likely living in a nursing home.
And the same goes for at least one of her two daughters, Kyra and Jaydalin.
The three were critically injured in a motor vehicle crash in 2015, and they miraculously survived to now share their harrowing story—one showcasing an incredible journey of hope and healing.
Luckily that day Shannon’s oldest son, Trenton, who had begged to come with, stayed back and went to school along with his brother, Braylon.
The mother and daughters have defied all odds against them. In fact, Shannon Kerr’s husband, Jason Kerr, remembers vividly how five neurosurgeons at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), which is the top trauma center in Minnesota, told him point blank that there was no hope for his wife. He should brace himself for her to become a vegetable for life or, even worse, death.
With Shannon Kerr not breathing on her own and half of her skull removed, tough decisions faced Jason Kerr.
“I thought if you don’t pull the plug, you get a long-time vegetable,” Jason Kerr said. “I knew people were praying and I needed a mother to our kids.”
 
The Crash
On a sunny Monday morning on Sept. 14, 2015, Shannon Kerr left her rural Lakeville home with her two daughters, then 7 and 4, to meet another family member in Rochester. The plan was to go on to visit a dog breeder in Wisconsin to possibly bring home a Yorkshire terrier puppy.
The trip quickly ended in horror and turned into a nightmare for the Kerr family.
At a rural intersection near Castle Rock in southern Dakota County, Shannon Kerr ran a stop sign at which time a semi-tractor trailer traveling 60 mph crashed into her van. The truck didn’t have any time to brake at all and broadsided the van with Kyra sitting closest to the front grille of the truck.
“An ordinary drive for an ordinary purpose suddenly became a horribly extraordinary and life-changing event,” Shannon Kerr said.
Mike Curry, a registered nurse, had been traveling in the area and was the first person to come upon the crash. His clear-minded observations instantly became a riveting record of a horrible yet extraordinary event.
When Curry got up to the mangled vehicle, he assessed the people in the van for their injuries and wanted to get them out before flames engulfed the vehicle.
And what he found later changed everyone’s perspective of this horrifying nightmare.
Curry saw four people in the vehicle—two adults in the front and two children in the back. However, Shannon Kerr left home with only two others, her children. She had been the only one in the front seat.
He saw a person slumped over with a light blue top on with sandy-colored hair in the driver’s seat. Shannon Kerr’s body was found mostly twisted over in the passenger’s seat.
Curry is adamant about what he saw. The only explanation anyone could come up with is that an angel ended up in the driver’s seat once Shannon Kerr’s body had been tossed over to the other side.
“Those people needed an angel. They still need an angel,” Curry later said.
Years later, Shannon Kerr reflects back on the crash.
“The intersection of two ordinary roads in Castle Rock became the extraordinary, supernatural intersection of heaven and earth,” she said. “It is beyond explanation. An easygoing Monday morning trip to see a puppy turned into an intriguing, glorious sight that no one could have envisioned.”
Two air ambulance helicopters transported Shannon Kerr and her daughters to HCMC in Minneapolis.
Jason Kerr later found out 23 emergency response vehicles assisted at the scene. “None expected them to live,” he said.
He learned from first responders from all indications Shannon Kerr gave at the scene when she was unconscious is that “it was over to the point of no return.”
 
The Recovery
Shannon Kerr was hooked up to life support at HCMC in the days following the crash. During this time, they removed a large portion of her skull. A picture taken at the time illustrates “no bone” written on bandages on the left side of her head.
At one point, doctors recommended unplugging Shannon Kerr from life support. “Five neurosurgeons said the best case scenario would be that I would be a vegetable for the rest of my life,” Shannon Kerr said.
She became unrecognizable to even her own children. Her hair had been shaved off, a feeding tube was attached to her, the skull was pushed in and bandages covered a portion of her head.
As she fought to stay alive, Shannon Kerr became known around the hospital as “The Miracle Woman.”
Shannon Kerr spent many weeks recovering from the crash, first at HCMC followed by Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul and Courage Kenny Rehabilitation in Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.
After being released from Abbott, she spent another five months in therapy at Courage Kenny in Burnsville.
A traumatic brain injury has left her with daily struggles.
She underwent intense therapy for months learning how to do things that are taken for granted all over again. It’s at Courage Kenny where Shannon Kerr learned to walk again. “Walking, memory and eating were the worst things for me,” she said, adding flash cards were used to teach her how to recognize simple objects and figures again.
Even after therapy, Shannon Kerr still faces challenges. For example, when she swallows, she has to turn to the side. “I struggle with eating, but that’s ok,” she said.
But she keeps a positive outlook.
“The good thing is I’m not in a wheelchair,” Shannon Kerr said. “There is positive in this stuff… it’s just how you view it.”
Shannon Kerr keeps busy working at home with the family business. She and her husband own and operate four Jimmy John restaurants in Lakeville, Faribault and Mankato. She helps with the bookkeeping.
 
Angels are real
As for the passing motorist witnessing an angel, Shannon Kerr has no doubt an angel ended up in the vehicle with her that fateful morning. She said that prior to the crash she didn’t understand angels or have an angel experience to speak of, but now she is convinced angels are for real.
“I think what Satan meant to destroy me, God stopped it,” Shannon said. “He knew that in a challenge, I don’t give up.“
Shannon Kerr knows nothing short of a miracle happened to her after the crash.
“My daughter should be dead. I should be dead,” Shannon Kerr said, adding her daughter “should have been gone instantly.”
She said she credits prayer and faith to bringing her family back together again. “There was no hope,” Shannon Kerr said matter of fact looking back at the crash. “In Christ, there is hope. It was all Jesus, 100%. God heals. In challenges, there are positives,” she said.
Shannon Kerr’s journey has left her incredibly blessed. “I’m very overwhelmed and thankful,” she said. “Wow, thank you Lord.”
She related how privately she has fallen to her knees to thank the Lord for her recovery.
Jason Kerr said he took comfort in knowing a guardian had been at the scene with his family. “To know the Lord was there and a guardian Angel had a hand, it gave me more peace and hope,” he said.
The Kerrs are members of River Valley Church in Apple Valley.
 
‘Hopeless scenario’
Jason Kerr doesn’t mince words when talking about what his family endured.
“This was a hopeless scenario,” Jason Kerr said. “There was nothing earthly to go on,” he said, adding when he signed to have Shannon’s skull removed, he figured things were over.
At the time, doctors told Jason Kerr that “if you want to keep her alive for another second, you have to remove her skull.” He said he didn’t have time to really think when everything was being thrown at him.
“This earth showed zero hope from a medical (point of view),” he said. “Nobody was giving any ounce that she would make it.”
Jason Kerr said the only remaining option was to turn to God.
From the time Jason Kerr received a call from a state trooper about the crash, he immediately began praying. The praying began at home, in the vehicle to the hospital and once he got to the hospital.
“I went on my knees, turned on worship music and prayed,” Jason Kerr said. “My hope was in Jesus from the moment it happened and Jesus was in complete control.”
Jason Kerr wasn’t alone.
In the days after the crash, Jason Kerr was careful to redirect people’s energy where it mattered most. “I didn’t want any energy wasted on the facts of the accident,” he said. “I just wanted them to pray.”
So he began encouraging family members and others to pray. The family set up a Caring Bridge site where 200,000 people began following them. And soon strangers were praying for a Minnesota mom with two kids hit by a semi.
Jason Kerr later found out a friend who was traveling went to a random church in Wyoming where they started praying for the Kerr family.
“People from all over were praying for me,” Shannon Kerr said with tears flowing down her face.
Added her husband confidently, “Prayer 100% and just the faith changed the outcome. The Lord still has a plan and a purpose for everything. I know the Lord hears our cries.”
Perhaps one of the most defining moments happened as Jason Kerr was on the hospital elevator just days after the crash. After being “bombarded with all the negative,” a man from Africa asked to pray with Jason Kerr for his family.
“This guy brought encouragement just with the clarity and boldness that he spoke over the situation,” Jason Kerr said. “He was sent from the Lord to show there is a light in the dark.”
Jason Kerr said he found irony in that moment because just a year prior to the crash he and Shannon performed mission work to help orphans in Africa. “How ironic that an African man showed up in the elevator to pray for us,” he said.
 “Prayer and faith are the only reasons she got past the worst of it,” Jason Kerr said.
He said he got no hope from hanging out at HCMC where the worst trauma victims end up. “It was rough,” Jason Kerr said, adding many of the patients coming in had police escorts.
Through other family members, hospital staff began questioning whether Jason Kerr understood the gravity of the situation facing his wife.
“It was easy to think this is it,” Jason Kerr said. “They were deeming this as hopeless.”
However, in Jason Kerr’s mind, he knew differently.
And soon doctors began taking note of Shannon Kerr’s miraculous recovery.
“The surgeon said you had to have an angel based on what we physically saw,” Jason Kerr said, adding the surgeon was in tears when sharing with him.
Both Jason and Shannon Kerr credit her excellent physical shape as another major factor in allowing her to pull through this ordeal. Shannon Kerr, who graduated from Owatonna High School in 1997, was a standout track star.
 
“Against All Odds”
In 2017, Shannon Kerr wrote a book, “Against All Odds,” with the help of ghost writer, Lisa Ericson. 
Shannon Kerr said the impetus behind writing a book came from people encouraging her to share her experiences.
She said she uses the book to let people know that Jesus is real and God is a healer. Shannon Kerr also emphasizes how her journey came about 100% through the power of prayer.
“A faith inspiring journey about God’s grace and mercy when a family is struck by tragedy that could strike any of us,” wrote The Rev. Mark Perryman of Northridge Church in Owatonna in the book. “It’s encouraging to see how family and friends pull together to intercede and watch God’s hand move.”
Shannon’s mother, Shelly McCauley of Owatonna, shares a journal in the book that she kept throughout the ordeal. In it, she describes the year after the crash as being the best and the worst. 
“The worst obviously is the accident and all the horror with that,” McCauley wrote. “The best, seeing the Lord move in the miraculous and feeling his presence in such a strong way. And the huge miracle of saving Shannon and Kyra.”
The book is available through Shannon Kerr’s website at www.againstalloddsbook.com.
Besides writing a book, Shannon Kerr also shares her story through public speaking at a variety of events, including church groups, women’s events and many others.
Though it was initially difficult for Shannon Kerr to get up in front of people, she said it has since become easier.
Shannon Kerr said she can’t express enough her gratitude to family and friends who have embraced her with love since the crash happened.
“They have helped me push forward, and now I have many miles to go to keep running with my story.”