They say the maternal instinct to protect one’s child is the strongest on Earth, and if 23-year-old Jennifer Duncan is any example, that aphorism is definitely true. The young mother of a then-eight-month-old son showed the ultimate in bravery when faced with a split-second decision while waiting for help for a fender bender on a Waco, Texas overpass in May of 2016.
It was just one of those horrible flukes. Standing off the road until first responders could arrive, Jennifer and her toddler son Daniel were suddenly faced with the terror of an oncoming car: another vehicle hit a parked car near the mother and son, and the sheer force pushed the parked vehicle straight towards them, subsequently catapulting them right over the bridge.
It was a 30-foot drop, and in an instant, Jennifer had to make a life-or-death decision to keep Daniel safe. She instinctively protected him by pulling her knees up around his tiny body to buffer his fall, and her efforts were successful. Daniel suffered nothing but a few scratches, but his mom wasn’t nearly as lucky.
The impact from hitting the cement below from such a high drop shattered her pelvis, causing 9 fractures, damage to several of her organs, two months in the hospital, and another in rehab. As a result of the trauma of the fall, Jennifer lost her left leg, and needless to say, it was a life-changing experience.
“Now, I’m learning how to walk on one leg,” she told Taylor Durden on Waco’s News Channel 25 KXXV in December. “And I’m anxious to walk with [a prosthetic] and get back with him playing in the park,” she added.
Good prosthetics have come a long way, but they don’t come cheap, and a GoFundMe page has been set up, https://www.gofundme.com/jennifersmiracle. A $750,000 goal has been set, and more than $16,000 has already been donated as of mid-January. Her family says her medical bills are likely to be astronomical over the course of her lifetime, and they doubt that her insurance will cover all of it, or even close to that.
For now, Jennifer’s spirits are high and she is hopeful about her own future, and son Daniel’s, who is now a healthy and energetic 15-month-old. That new leg would just be the icing on the cake for this brave young mom, though.
“To be able to walk again would be a great way to start off the New Year,” Jennifer said.
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