Hospitals are usually places we associate with sterile walls, hushed tones, and the kind of anxiety that sits heavy in the chest. They are places of beeping monitors, late-night prayers, and the struggle for survival. But every once in a while, within those walls of healing, a story emerges that transcends medicine and enters the realm of the miraculous.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, at Regions Hospital, the staff recently witnessed a moment that brought doctors, nurses, and family members to tears. It wasn’t a successful surgery or a patient being discharged—it was a proposal.
Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard, two young survivors who met seven years ago when they were both teenagers waking up from comas, returned to the site of their greatest trauma to create a memory of pure joy. Their story is not just one of romance, but of resilience, the power of family, and how two broken paths can converge to make something whole.
The October That Changed Everything
To understand the weight of this engagement, we have to rewind to the autumn of 2018. It was a time when Zach and Isabelle were strangers, living separate teenage lives, oblivious to the fact that their worlds were about to shatter and then fuse together.
For Zach Zarembinski, then 18 years old, life was about the gridiron. He was a senior lineman, playing under the Friday night lights—a rite of passage for so many American teens. But on October 28, 2018, the game stopped. Zach collapsed on the sidelines. It wasn’t a twisted ankle or a winded breath; he had suffered a catastrophic brain bleed.
The terrifying scene shifted from the football field to the emergency room at Regions Hospital. The situation was dire. Doctors placed Zach in a medically induced coma and performed an emergency craniotomy. This aggressive procedure involved removing the left side of his skull to allow his brain room to swell—a life-saving measure that leaves the patient incredibly vulnerable.
While Zach’s family was keeping vigil by his bedside, another tragedy was unfolding nearby.
Isabelle Richard, then just 16, was driving to her job at a local grocery store. It was a mundane commute, the kind we all take for granted, until a car crash changed the trajectory of her life in an instant. Isabelle suffered a massive head injury, arriving at Regions Hospital in critical condition. Like Zach, she fell into a coma. Like Zach, she required a craniotomy to relieve the pressure on her swelling brain.
Two teenagers. Two families. Two separate tragedies occurring days apart, leading them to the same Intensive Care Unit.
The First Meeting: A Flicker of Hope
The atmosphere in a waiting room for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients is a unique kind of purgatory. Parents bond over the shared language of intracranial pressure monitors and Glasgow Coma Scales. It was in this environment that the first threads of connection were woven—not between Zach and Isabelle, but between their mothers.
Zach, being slightly older and having arrived first, began to stabilize. He woke up nine days after his collapse. His recovery was headline news in the local community; a football player beating the odds is the kind of story people cling to.
As news crews converged on the hospital to cover Zach’s miraculous waking, Isabelle was still asleep. She remained in her coma, her future uncertain.
It was then that Zach, freshly awake and still processing his own near-death experience, met Isabelle’s mother, Esther Wilzbacher. In a moment of profound empathy, the 18-year-old boy looked at the terrified mother of the girl down the hall and offered a prophecy.
He told Esther that Isabelle was going to be alright.
It was a small kindness, perhaps born of the optimism of youth or the adrenaline of survival, but it was a lifeline for a mother drowning in worry. And Zach was right. Days later, Isabelle woke up.
Their first actual meeting was brief. It wasn’t a cinematic explosion of romance. It was two fragile young people, their heads wrapped in bandages, their bodies weak from trauma. Zach visited Isabelle’s room. They talked for a few minutes. They took a picture—Isabelle sitting in her hospital bed, Zach standing beside her.
“Said a couple of kind words to Isabelle, and that was it for six years,” Zach recalled later.
They were two ships passing in a very stormy sea, unaware that they would one day become each other’s anchor.
The Silent Years and the Invisible Injury
For six years, there was radio silence between the two. TBI recovery is a lonely, grueling road. When the news cameras leave and the “Get Well” balloons deflate, the real work begins.
Both Zach and Isabelle had to navigate their late teens and early twenties with the “invisible injury.” Recovering from a craniotomy isn’t just about the bone healing; it’s about relearning how to process the world. It involves physical therapy, cognitive therapy, and coming to terms with a life that looks different than the one they had planned before 2018.
However, while the kids were focused on healing, the mothers kept the tether attached. Tracy (Zach’s mom) and Esther (Isabelle’s mom) stayed in touch. They shared updates on milestones, setbacks, and the unique challenges of raising a child who has survived a severe brain injury. It was a friendship forged in fire, a support system that only another TBI mom could understand.
It wasn’t until 2024 that the families decided to reunite in person. They planned a dinner—a celebration of survival and a chance to catch up.
The Dinner That Sparked a Flame
When Zach and Isabelle sat down at that dinner table in 2024, they were no longer the frightened teenagers in hospital gowns. They were adults who had walked through the fire and come out the other side.
The connection was immediate. It wasn’t just physical attraction; it was a shared understanding that no one else could possibly possess. They didn’t have to explain the fatigue, the headaches, or the scars to each other. They already knew.
By the end of the meal, Zach asked Isabelle for her number. The dating phase began, and it moved with the certainty of two people who know the value of time.
“We Complement Each Other”
One of the most touching aspects of their relationship is how they view their injuries not as baggage, but as puzzle pieces.
In a twist of fate, their injuries occurred on opposite sides of their brains. Zach’s craniotomy was on the left; Isabelle’s was on the right.
“It’s opposite sides of our brain,” Isabelle explained in an interview with Kare11. “So, it’s kind of like we complement each other in that way. Things that I’m bad at, he’s good at.”
Science tells us that the left brain typically handles logic, sequencing, and linear thinking, while the right brain manages imagination, intuition, and arts. Whether their strengths align perfectly with neurology is beside the point; the metaphor is beautiful. Where one has a deficit, the other has strength. They literally and figuratively complete each other’s minds.
The Ruse: “Hope in Healing”
Fast forward to November 2025. Zach knew he wanted to propose, and he knew there was only one place that made sense. It wasn’t a beach in Hawaii or a restaurant in Paris. It was the place where they were given a second chance at life: Regions Hospital.
But how do you get your girlfriend to dress up and go back to the hospital without raising suspicion?
Together, the couple had started a podcast called “Hope in Healing,” where they discuss their recovery journeys to inspire others. Zach used this as the ultimate decoy. He told Isabelle that he had received special permission to record an episode on location at the hospital, right in the atrium where they had been treated.
Isabelle agreed, thinking they were there to pay tribute to the doctors and nurses.
“This is a very honor to be here,” Zach said into the microphone as the cameras rolled, his voice trembling slightly. “We are allowed to record this podcast in Regions Hospital where all the nurses and doctors took care of us and it’s just bringing tears to my eye to be able to come here and see this.”
He wasn’t acting. The emotion was real. But Isabelle didn’t know the whole story yet.
The Proposal
The setting was dramatic. A white backdrop was set up in the hospital atrium. Dozens of hospital staffers—some of whom likely treated them seven years prior—gathered around the balconies and the floor, sensing something big was about to happen. Friends and family were hidden in the wings.
Zach guided Isabelle to stand up. He pointed toward a specific area of the waiting room.
“That’s where I first met your family,” he told her, referencing that moment in November 2018 when he gave her mother hope.
Then, the script flipped.
Zach dropped to one knee. “Will you marry me?”
As he asked the question, the white backdrop behind them fell away. Revealed behind it was a massive, lush heart made of red and pink flowers, surrounding the words: Will You Marry Me?
Isabelle’s hand flew to her mouth. The shock, the joy, and the overwhelming history of the moment washed over her.
“Yes,” she responded.
The hospital atrium, usually a place of quiet tension, erupted in cheers. Nurses wiped away tears. Relatives hugged. It was a moment of victory—not just for love, but for life.
A Front Row Seat to a Miracle
The engagement of Zach and Isabelle is a powerful reminder to all parents and families navigating trauma: there is life after the accident.
For the parents, Tracy and Esther, this union is the happy ending they couldn’t have dared to dream of while sitting in the ICU waiting room in 2018.
“We’re just blessed to have a front row to their miracle,” Isabelle’s mother, Esther, said.
The parents refuse to take credit for “matchmaking,” despite keeping the families connected for years. They simply view it as a divine progression of events. They watched their children fight for life, fight for recovery, and now, they get to watch them build a future.
Why This Story Matters
In a world that often focuses on the tragic beginning of stories, Zach and Isabelle remind us to stick around for the second act.
They turned their “scene of the crime”—the hospital where they lost parts of their skulls—into a sanctuary of love. They took their trauma and repurposed it into a podcast to help others. They took their physical deficits and found a partner who balanced them out.
As they plan their wedding, there are practical considerations unique to them. They both still manage the long-term effects of TBI. But they face them together, armed with a shared history that few couples could ever understand.
Zach and Isabelle prove that while we cannot control the tragedies that befall us, we can control how we rebuild. And sometimes, when you think your life has fallen apart, it’s actually just falling into place to meet the person who will help you put it back together.
Congratulations to the happy couple!
If you want to follow their journey and hear more about their recovery, check out their podcast “Hope in Healing” on YouTube.
Join the conversation at MomDadGradCo:
Have you or a loved one found love in an unexpected place during a difficult time? Share your stories of “Hope in Healing” in the comments below.
Leave a Reply