Seven years ago, two Minnesota teens suffered separate traumatic brain injuries within days of eachother and were in comas at Regions Hospital in Saint Paul. Now, they’re engaged to be married.
In fall 2018, 18-year-old Zach Zarembinski was admitted after a brain injury while playing football for Hill-Murray High School. Nine days later, Isabelle Richard, 16, was hospitalized after a car crash on her way to her grocery store job.
Zach was in a coma for about a week, and then participated in a news conference about his incident and care from the hospital. The interview just so happened to play on the TV in Isabelle’s hospital room while she was still in a coma.
Isabelle’s mom, Esther, went down to the hospital lobby and spoke with Zach after catching his interview, who gave the family much-needed hope.
“He was telling us she'll be okay,” Esther told KARE 11.
Esther said she wanted her daughter to meet Zach once she emerged from her coma. Days later, she did, and the pair smiled for a photo together, though nothing initially came of it.
“I said a couple of kind words to Isabelle, and that was it for six years,” Zach told the news outlet.
However, Esther and Zach’s mom, Tracy, stayed in touch through Facebook over the years.
“I said, ‘Zach, come on, why don't you invite Isabelle out to lunch?’” Tracy recalled. “But he just wasn’t ready.”
But that changed six years after their injuries when the families met up for dinner and and pair hit it off.
“I asked her for her phone number,” Zach said.
The pair soon went on a date, and the rest is history.
Recently, the couple returned to Regions Hospital to record a special episode of their “Hope in Healing Podcast,” though Zach used the visit to ask Isabelle a big question.
“Will you marry me?” he asked as the couple’s families and former caregivers emotionally looked on.
Isabelle said yes and celebrated the special moment with those who saved her life less than a decade ago. Tracy cried “tears of joy,” while Esther said, “We’re just blessed to have a front row to their miracle.”
Early in their treatment, both Zach and Isabelle had portions 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. Things that I’m bad at, he’s good at,” Richard said.
