13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Teen stroke victim returns home

Teen stroke victim returns home

Jennie Runevitch/Eyewitness News

Marion County - A Franklin Central senior will finally get her diploma this weekend in a special afternoon ceremony at the high school. The honor, cut short last May, is now well deserved after her unexpected battle to survive.

To hear Melissa Hunter's story is to listen to the unthinkable. As a flute player, a fighter, and a member of the marching band, she was healthy, happy and in harmony with life. But last May, the 18-year-old suddenly needed a symphony of support just to survive. Her goal now is to play one more note:  ring the bell at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, where she spent the past two-and-a-half months.

"It's been a long road. It's been a nightmare," described Melissa's parents, Sherri and Buddy Hunter.

That nightmare began on the biggest night of Melissa's young life:  graduation from Franklin Central High School.

"The day started out really well,"  Sherri Hunter said.  "We went up there really early so we could get a good seat because she told us where she was going to be at."

But before receiving her diploma, Melissa and her fellow band members played "Heaven's Light", their senior song. During the performance, Melissa appeared in pain.

"She was looking around, you know, and I thought maybe she was nervous,"  Sherri Hunter said.

"We found out later that she turned to a good friend who was sitting by her and she said, 'My head hurts',"  said Franklin Central Band Director, Dan Fyffe.

On the way back to her seat, Melissa collapsed.

"As soon as I saw Melissa's face, I knew it was something major,"  explained her mom.

"It was that fast, you know, from one minute everything is fine, normal, happy, to next minute...wow. We may lose a daughter here," Fyffe said.

Melissa had suffered a stroke.   Emergency crews rushed her, still in cap and gown, from St. Francis to Methodist Hospital. Doctors said a blot clot in her leg traveled through a hole in her heart and went to her brain. Swelling on the brain required immediate, risky surgery.

"I said that's my little girl," Hunter told the surgeon.  "He goes, 'I know.'  I said do everything you can for her."

Doctors removed the blood clot, and Melissa survived the surgery, just as her second family in the band took to the ballfield, raising money for rehab. They knew their friend's road to recovery would be a long, often painstaking process. Melissa had to learn how to walk again, how to talk again, even how to perform simple tasks.

"When Melissa first came, she really couldn't even sit on the edge of the bed by herself. She couldn't talk with us. She had a hard time understanding what we were asking her to do,"  explained physical therapist, Laura Jarmer.

Some of the teen's struggles were accompanied by tears, while other milestones were viewed as miracles by family and friends. When asked what Melissa thought about while doing her exercises, she responded, "Keep going. It's making you better."

As it turns out, rehab requires a rhythm that she knew well. Rehearsal, practice, determination:  all of which she had mastered in marching band.

"That always carries over, into you know, their therapy. It helps in her recovery,"  said occupational therapist, Allison Crites.

"To see how far she's come, from being on death's doorstep, it's pretty amazing,"  Fyffe said of her recovery.

Melissa has no memory of graduation day, no memory of her collapse and stroke. She is focused on the future and that final piece of music:  the bell at the hospital.

"Ringing the bell means you're good. You're good to go. You've made your goal. And I want out of here," Melissa said.

And after months in rehab, on Thursday, Melissa rang the bell, walked out of the hospital, and went home. It may not have the melody of a marching band, but the Hunters say that bell is the sweetest sound they've ever heard.