Stephanie Decker returns home from rehab

LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- The Henryville mother who lost her legs while saving her children in the March 2 tornado went home on Monday.

Stephanie Decker was released from the Southern Indiana Rehab Hospital in New Albany.

Decker lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle when beams, bricks, and other debris fell on her during the tornado. Her 8-year-old son Dominic and 5-year-old daughter Reese were not hurt.

She came home to Sellersburg, to a house they own but had been renting out. Friends and volunteers helped move out the family that had been staying at the rental home.

They took out carpet and installed hardwood floors, making things easier for Stephanie to maneuver in a wheelchair.

Many of the additions make the home wheelchair accessible, including a ramp leading up to the home, and a wheelchair-friendly shower in the master bathroom.

Decker has been providing updates on Facebook -- her status Monday said, "I'm a free woman!"

For an earlier story about Stephanie Decker, click here.

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 children, wrapped them 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."

After the tornadoes passed, Dominic ran for help while a neighbor took Reese to safety, fearing a third tornado. Stephanie was 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."