Family of Logan teens shares update, gratitude after horrific crash on way to school
Mar 30, 2022, 9:42 PM | Updated: Jun 18, 2022, 8:32 pm
LOGAN, Utah — Family of two Logan High School teens nearly killed in a crash on their way to school gave an update on the two Wednesday and shared what’s giving them hope while Kirubel and Surafel Mesfin remain hospitalized.
Looking at pictures and footage from Monday’s crash, it’s unbelievable for Jonathan Abebe to see, knowing his two cousins were in the front seats as the car collided with a water truck.
“There’s no way anyone would believe the kids came out alive from that accident,” Abebe said.
Kirubel, 18, and Surafel, 14 were on their way to school. Both brothers are now hospitalized, with Kirubel in Ogden and Surafel in Salt Lake City. They both attend Logan High school, where Kirubel is a senior and Surafel a sophomore.
Abebe, the nephew of the boys’ father, shared that Surafel is stable but being monitored and is expected to stay in the hospital.
Kirubel is even worse off, and Abebe described how his cousin had multiple surgeries Monday and Tuesday as Kirubel suffered from internal bleeding, shattered elbows, and injuries to his hips, collarbones, arms and spine.
“He was highly sedated, because of the multiple open heart and brain surgery that they had to do the day of the accident,” he said. “So we didn’t know what to expect and what to anticipate.”
The whole situation is hard to believe in and of itself, but even more so after knowing what the two teens’ father just went through.
“He recovered from cancer and now all of a sudden, this just happened,” Abebe said.
The family just survived that experience which lasted a few years, Abebe and other family members explained, and things were beginning to return to normal.
But during a stressful week with a lot of worrying and tears, Abebe described how something else unbelievable happened to the family.
Hundreds of people reached out, many through a GoFundMe* to help ease the financial burden on the parents and others through the high school soccer community Kirubel is a part of.
“A majority of the support is people that we don’t even know,” Abebe expressed. “And it was just that the outpouring of support, the messages, the phone calls, the love that we’ve been receiving, the prayers that we’ve been receiving is unbelievable.”
He added that Kirubel and Surafel’s immediate family is incredibly grateful and appreciative of that support and help.
And more good news to share on Wednesday: Kirubel awoke, responding with blinks and head nods.
Even if the rehab journey ahead is long and extensive, it’s now giving the family the hope that these boys will recover.
“It’s just a miracle,” Abebe said, adding, “and we’re blessed the fact that they’re still alive and trending in the right direction.”
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