By Victor A. Patton
vpatton@todayslocalnews.com
A passerby, who happened to notice the extreme amount of dust in the air following the accident,
pulled his car to the side of the road and saw Ivy’s car near the bottom of the embankment.
Ivy was thrown from the car — her chest crushed as she lay barely conscious in a bush.
Since that day, Ivy’s life has been spent primarily confined to a hospital bed at Palomar Medical
Center, with as many as eight tubes inside her chest at a time and connected to a respirator and
dialysis machine.
As she was recovering from surgery to remove her spleen and repair her lacerated liver,
she developed a severe infection and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome; a devastating
inflammatory disease of the lung that can result in one drowning in his or her own fluids.
"It's been extremely tough," said Ivy. "It seems like I've been here forever." Although Ivy is unable
to speak, her mother, Kathie Kensinger, reads her lips. Despite all of the trials that Ivy has endured
over the past 15 months, her situation is finally taking a turn for the better.
On March 2, Ivy had a special operation intended to help remove the infection that had
developed in her chest - and she is making a slow, but steady recovery, according to Kathie.
This month, Ivy finally began to breathe on her own without the help of a respirator - which she has
been connected to since her accident. If all goes well, Ivy's body will begin to heal on its own and she
won't need any more operations.
"We're really hoping that this is enough," Kathie said. - The doctors] think that the infection has been
holding her back from healing. If they get that under control, it will have a chance to let everything else
heal and come back to normal. A resident of Temecula, Ivy longs for the day she will be able to finally
go home with her family and cuddle up with her cat Lenor, whom she misses dearly.
Ivy's recovery is especially significant, said Kathie, since many of her doctors believed that her chances
of survival were slim. On more than one occasion, according to Kathie, she was told by doctors to
prepare for the worst. Through it all, Ivy remained determined to survive and persevere throughout her
sickness. "We spent our Christmas with her [at the hospital] begging her to stay alive, asking her to hold
on," Kathie said. "Ivy has always had a very strong spirit. She has always been an independent individual,
very strong willed. She's always been a fighter and challenged herself from day one," Kathie said.
Ivy said her family and friends have played a major role in keeping her spirits up during her time in the
hospital. Ever since Ivy's accident, her mother has spent each day by her bedside, while her father,
Michael Kensinger, leaves his job early in Arcadia so that he can be with his daughter in the evening.
"My family, especially my brother Richard, will bring in different musicians to play music for her
periodically," Kathie said.
After she is able to leave the hospital, Ivy said she plans on "taking a break for a while."
She plans to one day attend college at the University of California Berkeley, where she would like
to pursue a career in photojournalism. "Ivy has such a gift for writing," Kathie said. "And Ivy and I
both need time at a spa. We deserve just to be pampered for a little while, so we have plans on doing
different things together."