Woman reunites with neurosurgeon who saved her life nearly 30 years ago

SUWANEE, Ga. - It was a reunion nearly 30-years in the making.

On Wednesday, a woman got to thank the man she credits with helping save her life in the early 90s.

The year was 1994 and Rachelle Broom was critically injured during a deadly car crash. 

After so many years, she finally got to meet and thank the neurosurgeon she said saved her life." 

"It's been on my heart to say thank you," Broom explained. 

It was a warm embrace between Broom and Dr. Donald Penney.

It was a hug brought together by a tragic night 27 years ago.

"I appreciate you saving my life, and it's been that way since I woke up," she told Dr. Penney. 

In 1994, the then 18-year-old Norcross High School senior and her boyfriend were ejected from a car on Holcomb Bridge Road in Gwinnett County.

Her boyfriend died from his injuries.

"Pretty much my right side of my body. I broke my collar bone. I fractured my pelvis. I crushed my right ankle," Broom told FOX 5.

On Wednesday, at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Georgia in Suwanee, she spent time with Dr. Penney who performed the procedure that saved her life.

"It's moving and to me. It's special," Dr. Penney explained. 

He said she had a life-threatening brain hemorrhage and needed immediate brain surgery.

"She obviously has had a good outcome and its changed her life, and I'm honored to be here," he explained. 

Broom said that the accident inspired her to become a nurse.

She's now studying to become a nurse practitioner.

"I was given a second chance."

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