Camryn Herriage’s family faced a heartbreaking decision as four separate doctors advised them to withdraw her from life support. Lying unresponsive in her hospital bed, the prognosis was grim; she was predicted to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of her life, even if she survived the devastating injuries from a car crash that took the life of her best friend.

The accident occurred on February 11, 2024, when Camryn and her friend Sara House, both 22, were struck by a white pickup truck while stopped at a red light after leaving a Dallas club. The tragic collision claimed Sara’s life.

Having recently graduated from Texas Tech University, the two young women had relocated to Dallas. Sara had embarked on a career as an executive sales associate assistant at Ralph Lauren and was also active in bodybuilding competitions.

Camryn, 24, had garnered a substantial social media presence with 32,000 followers on TikTok, thanks to her studies in social media management and branding. Following the accident, she spent nearly four months in the intensive care unit.

“She was essentially internally decapitated,” Camryn’s mother, Shirley Campanello, shared with the Daily Mail on Monday. This revelation came from the rehabilitation center in Irving, Texas, where Camryn is currently undergoing treatment.

‘She was basically decapitated internally,’ Camryn’s mother Shirley Campanello told the Daily Mail on Monday at the rehabilitation facility In Irving, Texas, where her daughter now spends her days.

Campanello said her daughter’s spinal cord was severed from her head after the wreck. Doctors believed they would have to reattach it in surgery, but after months of healing, it reattached on its own. 

‘We just didn’t believe them and we just believed in God, that if enough people prayed and enough people believed that miracles can happen, and miracles did happen,’ she continued.

Camryn Herriage, 24, before the Feb. 11, 2024 crash in Dallas, Texas that changed her life. Right: Camryn after making a remarkable recovery that was not expected by doctors

Left: Camryn Herriage, 24, before the Feb. 11, 2024 crash in Dallas, Texas that changed her life. Right: Camryn after making a remarkable recovery that was not expected by doctors

The pair of college roommates (pictured) were extremely close and would often make TikToks together, which Herriage shared on her profile boasting 32,000 followers

Last year, the wheelchair-bound survivor powerfully addressed Carmen Guerrero, the drunk driver who destroyed her life, in court. 

‘She’s a monster – a god damn monster. I said she was selfish,’ Camryn said of the days she saw Guerrero, who pleaded guilty to being behind the wheel of the truck that barreled in the girls that night.

‘No remorse. She had none.’

In her first ever interview, Camryn revealed to the Daily Mail she believes she had a near-death experience while in a coma where she saw God. 

‘He’s big and beautiful. His skin is like sand. It glows. He told me it wasn’t my time,’ she recalled.

After spending four months in a coma and nearly one year lying in a bed, Camryn is now defying odds.

She’s regaining feeling in her legs after being told she would never walk again. She credits her faith for the progress.

‘My faith in God. God is helping me. I’m a born-again Christian. He saved me,’ the young woman said.

‘I think that science only goes so far, and then it’s God.’ But the strength of her faith is a post-crash change.  

In her first ever interview, Camryn Herriage, 24, sits next to her mother, Shirley Campanello, in the Irving, Texas rehabilitation facility where she receives treatment

The two young women were leaving a Dallas club and sitting at a red light on February 11, 2024, when a white pick up truck slammed into their car – killing Sara

‘She’s got a lot of faith in God that she didn’t have before,’ her mom shared. ‘I mean she believed in God, but not like now.’

Despite her medicine-defying progress, Camryn still has tough days, still unable to stand or walk, mourning her best friend and thinking of the life she might have had.

When asked what’s hard about her life now, she said: ‘Being a shell of what I used to be.’ 

She’s also aware of how different she looks. ‘I just miss my hair because it was super long.’

Her blonde locks had previously been long and straight and now her hair is short and curly.

However, she stays positive, encouraged by her incredible progress, leaving medical professionals speechless at how far she’s come.

Her tracheostomy tube was removed in September 2024 and she’s only been able to hold her head up on her own for less than a year.

The woman who allegedly took off was later identified by police as 27-year-old Carmen Guerrero

‘She will always be on seizure medicine because she had probably four or five seizures, three strokes, 11 brain surgeries,’ Campanello added.

‘Her brain is all there, which is totally a miracle because they just kept taking out little pieces.’ Camryn remembers everything except for the month after the crash.

She learned her beautiful friend had died when she woke up in the hospital after the totally avoidable tragedy.

Pick up driver Guererro, 27, was described as ‘extremely intoxicated’ by witnesses on the night of the crash.

Sara House, (pictured) tragically died in the hit-and-run, and tributes have poured in for the Texas Tech University graduate  

Walking again isn’t Herriage’s only goal. She also dreams of finding love and becoming a mom one day

They told police she fled the scene on foot and was arrested 11 days later. 

Guerrerro was sentenced to 18 years for all the victims after she agreed to plead guilty for all the passengers she hit, instead of trying each victim’s case individually.

‘I don’t have that much anger,’ Campanello said. ‘I don’t have time to think about her. All I focus on is Camryn.

‘She’s in jail. I don’t think of her. I’m not going to carry that burden forever when I have her to deal with.’

‘I’ll do it,’ interrupted Camryn. But the 24-year-old also doesn’t have time for self-pity. 

Proving doctors wrong takes a lot of work. And walking again isn’t her only goal. She also dreams of finding love and becoming a mom one day. But for now, she remembers Sara.

‘I want to work out again. Sara was a body builder. I want to do it for her.’ At one point, Camryn flexes her bicep, showing how strong she is. 

Her mother shares how Sara’s family visits her often: ‘They say Sara is going to live through Camryn, so she has two lives to live.’