Northwest Indiana woman recovering from spinal injuries after massive tree crushes her car

A LaPorte County woman is recovering from severe spinal injuries after a massive tree fell onto her SUV last week in northwest Indiana.

Kaity Schultz's husband, Chris, said the road ahead will be long, but their family is holding on to hope.

Speaking from her hospital bed in South Bend, Kaity said she's working hard to stay positive, but there's a long road ahead for her recovery.

"I'm going to work really hard to get back home to my family and my work family," she said. "It feels fantastic to know I have a million supporters behind me. You don't realize until you get into a situation how much of an impact you make on people."

Kaity and her family said everything changed in an instant on May 18. She was in her car after dropping her 4-year-old son off at daycare, when a massive tree branch fell and crushed her car on Fail Road in LaPorte County, trapping her inside.

"Got my Starbucks, got my Danish, dropped him off at daycare, and then I guess a new normal started," she said.

Crews spent up to two hours working to free Kaity from the wreckage.

"They brought a lift. It was like a 10,000-pound lift that they got three inches to get her out eventually," said her husband, who was across the country at the time.

Chris said the first phone call he received about what happened was terrifying.

"All I knew was just that a tree had fallen. She was bleeding, and then they airlifted her and she was going into surgery. So I was, like, instantly on a flight," he said.

Doctors were able to relieve pressure on her spinal cord, but the damage was significant

"Walking's not … it's a low chance, but it's not impossible. So we're just waiting to hopefully get into rehab soon," he said.

The family is now waiting for insurance approval for Kaity to transfer to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago for intensive rehab.

"It's life-changing now. Our lives are just different now, I guess," Chris said.

The Schultz family questioned how something like this is possible. The LaPorte County Sheriff's Office said there were 18 mile per hour winds moving through the area at the time the branch fell, but it's not clear if weather is to blame.

"What are the odds that a tree like that is going to land directly on your head when you're driving 40 miles an hour?" Chris said. "It's just hard to understand what happened."

Chris said the hardest part has been explaining what happened to their 4-year-old son, JT.

"He's like, 'When is mom coming home?' It's like, 'Well, soon, hopefully,' but I don't know if he fully understands it," Chris said.

"When he sees me in the hospital it worries him, but he sees my booboos on my head going away, so he knows I'm going to get better, and that's what we keep talking about," Kaity said.

Kaity has been moved out of the intensive care unit and is waiting to begin treatment. The family said she could spend several weeks in intensive rehab before continuing outpatient therapy.