Amazing woman saves children by courageously throwing herself in front of moving SUV

It all started out as a family vacation in the Colorado Mountains back in 1999. As they were preparing for their last swim, the life-changing accident happened. Joy Vernon managed to amazingly save her three young children from death by pulling a dangerous stunt, laying herself in front of their SUV to prevent it from running off a cliff. The then 30-year-old schoolteacher endured injuries that almost led to her death, but she survived, despite struggle and divorce.

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MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Joy wasn't thinking of anything else besides the horrified eyes of her small children when she threw herself down and let the SUV drag her, she explained to Oprah.

She was successful in slowing down the vehicle, which allowed her dad to push the brake. However, she knew her body was severely damaged.

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"I did like a somersault under the car and the third time it hit I knew that it broke my back. I was 30-years-old and the whole life I knew was gone," she said.

Joy survived; doctors say it's because of the way she had tilted her head, but to her it is her family's support that made her survive. "You can go in if you want to tell your kids goodbye and say those parting words, but if you want to fight, you've got to fight."

She is now paralyzed and still unable to walk even after a series of treatments, including stem cell therapy she got in Portugal. Joy has also suffered from depression, but fought against it after realizing it was her choice to just lie in bed depressed or to be able to walk again, not physically, but in life's sense.

She chose to take on her life once more.

According to the statistics given by her doctor, 99.2 percent of the marriages of those who had undergone the rehabilitation did not survive. The only thing she was regretful of the event is that her and her ex-husband did not go to counseling.

Recently, Joy, now 46-years-old, and her husband got divorced after their 23 years of marriage, she explained crying in Oprah's "Where Are They Now" episode.

But she knows her children, Elliot, Annie and Chloe, are still alive thanks to her bravery. Elliot explained how he and his siblings were inspired by their mom's sacrifice. Eldest Chloe, now 22, just had graduated from Harvard University.

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