‼️ A Texas teenager spent her 16th birthday in an ICU after a devastating vehicle accident left her facing a recovery that could mean learning to walk all over again.

For 66-year-old Vicki, Kari Sims is more than her granddaughter. She is the family she has left.

“I’m all she has,” Vicki said.

Kari was struck and pinned beneath a vehicle on August 11 during a disturbance in Lacy Lakeview, near Waco, according to her grandmother. Police confirmed that two teenage girls were hit by a vehicle and said the driver was identified and interviewed. Vicki says no charges have been filed so far, something she says is difficult to understand as she watches Kari endure the aftermath.

The teenager’s injuries have been extensive.

Vicki says Kari suffered two broken legs, a shattered pelvis, a broken hip and severe burns after becoming trapped beneath the vehicle. She has undergone numerous surgeries and skin grafts, including treatment for serious injuries on the right side of her face. Part of her ear could not be saved.

But even after surviving the initial trauma, Kari’s fight has continued.

She has battled severe pneumonia that has been resistant to treatment, along with C. diff and another infection. She has required a ventilator, feeding tubes and eventually a tracheostomy. Doctors recently ordered another CT scan as they work to understand the ongoing fever and infections threatening her recovery.

For Vicki, every day beside Kari is filled with fear—but also determination.

Kari cannot speak because of the tracheostomy. Before it was placed, however, she managed to write one heartbreaking word:

“Why?”

Vicki says she had to explain that Kari had been hit by a vehicle and was now receiving treatment at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin.

“I kinda hope she don’t remember it,” Vicki said.

The grandmother has remained beside Kari through surgeries, complications and uncertain days. Even when she can only sit quietly with her granddaughter, she makes sure Kari knows she is not alone.

Vicki puts on a gown and gloves, takes Kari’s hand and repeats the words she wants her granddaughter to hear every day:

“Mimi is here. Mimi loves you. You are safe.”

Those words have become a promise.

Vicki lost her daughter to congestive heart failure in February. Just six months later, she found herself spending her days and nights at her granddaughter’s hospital bedside, fighting alongside Kari with everything she has.

Now she is asking others to join that fight in the simplest way possible: through prayer.

🙏 Pray that Kari’s pneumonia finally responds to treatment. Pray that her infections clear, her skin grafts continue healing and her lungs become stronger. Pray that her body gains the strength needed for the long road ahead.

And please pray for Vicki, too—a grieving mother who is now standing beside her granddaughter when Kari needs her most.

💔 Kari may have a long recovery ahead, but she does not have to face it alone.

❤️🙏 May every new day bring a little more strength, a little more healing and a little more hope. 🕊️