LOUISVILLE, Ky (WDRB) – A Henryville mother recounts the terrifying moments she protected her kids from two tornadoes at her own peril.
Stephanie Decker and her husband Joe were texting each other right before the storm. The last one he received from his wife said "the whole house was shaking."
"I started to get a little worried," recalls Stephanie. "Then it started to rattle and shake a little more."
She scrambled to the basement with her kids, 8-year-old son Dominic and 5-year-old daughter Reese. Stephanie wrapped her kids in a blanket and laid on top of them
"One window broke and I knew and I said to myself, 'Oh my lord, my house is going down,'" says Decker. "This tornado is going to take us out. The pillars, the steal beams, the bricks. Everything from my house was hitting me in the back. I remember having a steal beam fall right on my leg."
Decker could hear her kids screaming from inside the blanket." "Dominic at one point would say, ‘Mommy I need you to save me.'"
After the storm passed, Stephanie tried to move the beam off her leg. "Large amounts of blood started coming out. I knew my leg was severed or it was barely attached."
Then Dominic spotted a second tornado headed right for them. The mother ignored her injuries to once again protect her kids. "I saw a brick coming at my daughter's direction. I maneuvered my back left and right dodging so I would take the hit."
Remarkably, they survived. Dominic ran for help while a neighbor took Reese to safety fearing a third tornado. Stephanie was now all alone struggling to survive. "I would sit and talk to myself out loud and say 'Ok we can do this. We can do this. We can make it. I got to live for my kids."
But just positive as she was, negative thoughts crept in. "The next moment I was I can't do this anymore. I can't stay awake. I'm tired. I just want to close my eyes. I just prayed somebody," says a tearful Decker. "Somebody come help me. Somebody save me. I'm dying."
She reached for her cell phone to call for help, but the storm knocked out service. So she started recording her goodbyes. "I made a video for my children and husband."
Just as hail pelted the wife and mother, she heard a sheriff deputy's voice. "You got to save me. I'm dying. He goes you're not going to die. You're going to make it. You're going to be fine."
Once at the hospital, doctors had to amputate Stephanie's legs - one below the knee, the other just above it. She has been called a hero, but says any mother would do nothing less. "I'm just a mom. I want to do anything I could to protect them."
Stephanie and Joe say they can't bring themselves to watch the cell phone video she recorded. She manages to keep her humor up through all of this, jokingly talking about how she'll match her tan to her new legs.
Those wishing to help the family can drop off donations at any Fifth Third bank in Joseph Decker's name.
