'Spectacular' Recovery for State Fair Stage Collapse Victim

This story of survival is part of the Dateline report "Twist of Fate"

Andrea Vellinga cant remember anything about the steamy August day that forever changed her lifenot the trip to the 2011 Indiana State Fair, not the horrific stage collapse, not the object that careened down on her head, cracking her skull and bruising her brain.

Andrea Vellinga was injured when the stage at the Indiana State Fair collapsed in 2011.

As ominous black clouds barreled toward the Indianapolis fair grounds on Aug. 13, Vellinga was in the crowded pit at the base of the stands waiting for her favorite band, Sugarland, to come on stage. When the storm struck, it was violent. Heavy winds ripped at the rigging of the towers at the front of the stage and, in a matter of moments, sent the structure crashing down on the crowd below. Seven people died. Dozens were injured.

It was Vellingas good luck that a physician and her paramedic husband were in the stands. The couple spotted the unconscious 30-year-old mom lying on the ground, got her onto a makeshift stretcher and then into an ambulance.

It was her bad luck that the injury to her brain was so severe doctors feared she wouldnt survive, let alone go back to her old life.

The majority of patients with that kind of injury do not have a good outcome.

"The majority of patients with that kind of injury do not have a good outcome," said Dr. Richard B. Rodgers, the neurosurgeon who removed part of Vellingas skull in an attempt to bring down the rapidly building pressure on her brain.

Many die or are comatose for a long period of time or end up in a persistent vegetative state, said Rodgers, director of neurotrauma at Indiana University Health.

But Vellinga beat all the odds. Her recovery was spectacular, Rodgers said. This type of recovery you see in one in a couple thousand patients.

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'Spectacular' Recovery for State Fair Stage Collapse Victim