Watch "Fight Like Ana" on Epoch Cinema here.
Commentary
Sometimes it's hard to fathom how fortunate we are to not have faced extreme forms of adversity—or have family members who have. But after watching the excellent documentary, "Fight Like Ana," we can learn some lessons about appreciating every moment we have with our loved ones.
It's a touching reminder of the value of faith and family.
The film begins with tragedy…
Early one October morning in 2017, Ana Wakefield was driving on her way to basketball practice down Highway 212, just west of Damascus, Oregon. The driver of a stolen SUV suddenly crossed over the line and hit Ana head-on with so much force that the entire front half of her car was practically destroyed.
Tyler Jennings, the first witness on the crash scene, said that he could see Ana's body, but that she wasn't moving and there was a lot of blood leaking from her legs. He moved in closer to see if she had a pulse, but couldn't detect one. The driver of the SUV had already fled the scene.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they quickly took Ana to the Oregon Health & Science University Hospital. Although she sustained a number of horrific injuries, the most severe being some bleeding and swelling of her brain. Therefore, she was rushed into emergency surgery to operate on her brain.
The scene of Ana Wakefield’s horrible accident in "Fight Like Ana". (Exploration Films)
To put things into perspective—on the third day of Ana's hospitalization, Val and Ana were scheduled to play their first basketball game together at Multnomah University. On that same day, while Ana lay fighting for her life in a coma, doctors were uncertain as to whether the young lady would survive another 24 hours. Her aspirations of being a star basketball player had been completely dashed in just an instant.
After weeks in the hospital, Ana woke up and as she later recounts, felt around with her hand to discover that her hair had been shaven off and her head had multiple large scars embedded into her scalp from the multiple surgeries she'd been through. She began crying, saying that she'd never be beautiful again.
At first, Ana began her rehabilitation at the hospital and her father, Dave, became the driving force in her recovery. Miraculously, Ana improved her bodily locomotion, ability to speak, and balance and coordination. After nine weeks, she was allowed to return home to continue her rehabilitation there with her family.
Her father later remarks he never would have known that after 30 years of coaching school athletics, God would choose him to be Ana's primary rehabilitation coach.