A BYU–Idaho Student’s Journey From Brain Injury to Temple Marriage

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By Sariah Francis, Church News

For Israel and Sariah Garcia, students at Brigham Young University–Idaho, April 30, 2025, is a day never to be forgotten. 

Two weeks earlier, the couple had gotten engaged. Wedding planning was underway amidst the hassle of a new semester beginning. The couple planned to be married in August 2025. 

Israel Garcia arrived at work on April 30, ready to help move a few steel beams that had been incorrectly placed in the manufacturing engineering lab stock room at BYU–I. He had worked as a teaching assistant for a few years, helping students learn more about using the machinery. 

During the moving process, 900 pounds of metal fell on top of him. Immediately knocked unconscious, he received fractures to his face, skull and shoulders. The accident nearly severed his brain stem. 

“He was pretty messed up,” Sariah Garcia said. 

She explained that there were three levels of damage that a person’s brain stem could receive without being completely severed. Israel Garcia’s injuries were level three. 

“It was so severely damaged that essentially it was just hanging on by a thread,” she said. 

He also suffered severe brain damage from his brain hitting his skull. Small connections in the brain that help a person to eat, speak and walk, were broken. Sariah Garcia said that she and other family members were repeatedly told that if Israel Garcia were to wake up he would “be a vegetable.” 

Carol Garcia, his mother, received a phone call that morning from an unknown number. She typically doesn’t answer unknown calls but felt that she needed to answer this one. 

“They said, ‘Hey, your son has been in an accident,’” Carol Garcia said. “I was like, ‘How bad could it be?’” 

She said that it wasn’t until the caller identified himself as Nick Rammell, BYU–Idaho’s dean of students, that she understood how badly her son was hurt. She and one of her daughters immediately drove to the hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, followed closely by his fiancée, who had also been notified. 

Sariah Garcia said that monitors showed Israel Garcia didn’t have any brain activity, though his heart was still pumping. The outcome appeared bleak. The family had a difficult decision to make. 

“Do we try to wait for him to wake up? But then what would his quality of life be? Or should we just pull the plug and let him go peacefully,” she said. 

Carol Garcia said that many people came and visited them in the hospital, sharing how sorry they were that her son was dead. But she knew that it wasn’t over. Through many priesthood blessings and spiritual impressions, Carol, and other family members, knew that her son would survive. 

After only five days in a coma, Israel Garcia woke up. 

Sariah Garcia said she had felt impressed to go wedding dress shopping that morning. As an act of faith that her fiancé would be alright, she found a dress and bought it. 

“As [my mom] was swiping the card to pay for my dress, I got a phone call that Israel had woken up and that he was taking commands,” she said. “If they told him to wiggle his finger, he could wiggle his finger.” 

He spent about a month at the ICU in Idaho Falls, Idaho before being transferred to a hospital in Salt Lake City for physical, occupational and speech therapy and rehab. 

Israel Garcia recalls feeling he had two important reasons to live. 

“The first was to glorify God and testify of modern-day miracles. And the second was to get married to my wife,” he said. 

The couple has a saying now to always “bring your umbrella.” Israel Garcia explained that if you pray for rain, you need to take an umbrella as a sign to God that you know He will make it rain. The umbrella represents the faith you have that God will provide answers and miracles. 

On August 8, 2025, Sariah and Israel Garcia were married in the Provo City Center Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, three months and one week after his accident. 

Nearly a year after the accident, Israel Garcia still uses a walker to move around but has made milestone improvements with the help of doctors, therapists and the faith and prayers of loved ones. 

“Any opportunity we’re given, we testify that God is a God of miracles, 100%,” Sariah Garcia said. 

Reflecting on the past few months, Carol Garcia said her son is a modern-day Lazarus, referring to the man Jesus raised from the dead in the New Testament (John 11:1-45) 

“I believe that when you are able to keep your covenants that you can go forward with confidence to ask God for what you need,” she said. 

Carol Garcia said the Lord loves effort, and when one is doing one’s best to put in that effort, that person can have confidence in asking Heavenly Father to intervene. She also acknowledged that sometimes miracles and answers to prayers come on His time, not the individual’s. To her, the miracle in those moments is continuing to have faith in Jesus Christ. 

Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in his April 2021 general conference talk, “Many of you have witnessed miracles, more than you realize. They may seem small in comparison to Jesus raising the dead. But the magnitude does not distinguish a miracle, only that it came from God” (“Behold! I Am a God of Miracles”).

Israel and Sariah Garcia hope that through their modern-day miracle, others can know that Heavenly Father still performs miracles today, even for ordinary people. 

“We’re just ordinary people. We are the most normal people you would ever meet, but something so amazing happened in our lives,” Sariah Garcia said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is, if you are keeping your covenants and you have faith in the Lord then He will perform miracles in your life.” 

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