Clinic helps get Florence woman home after Florida wreck

A Florence woman is home following an automobile wreck that occurred last month in Florida, thanks to the efforts of Mercy Medicine Clinic.

The clinic worked with the Mary Alice Caudle Ingram Charitable Lead Unitrust of Florence to bring Carolyn Johnson home to be with her family while she heals from her extensive injuries.

Kaye Allen, executive director of the clinic, said it was no easy task getting through all the red tape to bring Johnson home.

“She was down in St. Petersburg in Bayfront Medical Center,” Allen said. “The family could not afford to bring her back home to Florence, so their pastor contacted me and asked if there was anything Mercy could do.”

Allen said that sort of work typically is outside the clinic’s mission, but the story touched their hearts and they made the decision to try.

“We had a little bit of difficulty,” she said. “Carolyn has still got a long way to go for recovery. She needed an ICU fixed wing critical care aircraft to bring her home. So I called AmbuAir, who does that, and requested their services to bring her home and they did.”

Allen said she was surprised when the service was provided the same day. She said the homecoming at the airport was a sight to behold.

“(The family was) very tearful,” she said. “It was the most moving thing I’ve been a part of.  There wasn’t a dry eye at the airport.”

The Rev. Louis Brody, the pastor who played an instrumental part in bringing Johnson home, said his role with the family typically is a supportive one only, but he couldn’t stand by and watch the family be separated any longer.

“The Lord used me to call Kaye at Mercy Medicine to try to enlist their help in getting Carolyn home,” he said.

And that effort worked with tremendous success, he said

“It was awesome,” he said. “It just worked out. Kaye Allen and the staff at Mercy Medicine were tremendous. They grabbed a hold of it and saw it through all the way, even when it looked like it wasn’t going to happen.”

He said it was Allen’s tenacity that made the endeavor work.

“Kaye Allen is like a bulldog — when she puts her teeth in something, she sees it through,” Brody said.

Porsha B. Johnson, one of Johnson’s daughters, said the past two months have been trying for their family.

“We kept getting ‘she’s not coming,’ then they’d say she is coming,” she said. “When we finally got the phone call that she was coming, that was a great day, to be sure. When we finally saw the plane land, we were like ‘Thank God,’ because that was the best present I could ever receive.”

Porsha B. Johnson said her mother is doing well and is expected to recover from the injuries she received in the car crash.

“My momma is a remarkable woman,” she said. “I can’t tell you how far she has come. My momma has proven everybody wrong. She is up and taking care of business.”