TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo Fire & Rescue Department has reported zero deaths and zero major injuries following Thursday night's storms, which spawned nine confirmed tornadoes across northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. However, this doesn't take into account the injuries which have not been reported yet.
This was the case for a woman who is now recovering from a traumatic injury sustained when the storms hammered Point Place. Brianna Sheriff said she is grateful to be alive after a tree branch crashed through her window and hit her face.
Sheriff said she went to go close a window in her home during the storm, but it was too late.
"I'm like, 'I need to get away from this window because it looks terrible out there,' and just as I was thinking it, a branch came through and smacked me out of my bed," Sheriff said.
The branch didn't knock her out, but it shattered the window and sent shards of glass into Sheriff's face.
At that moment, Sheriff said she yelled for her 7-year-old son Alex to call 911.
"He was in such a panic that all he could do was actually call '911! 911!' around the house," Sheriff said.
She said she grabbed her son to take him to the bathroom for safety and then called her father because emergency services could not get to her. Sheriff said this moment felt like the longest 45 minutes of her life.
"I was worried I was going to die in front of my son, that nobody was ever going to get to us," she said.
Her dad was able to get to her safety where doctors at the University of Michigan Hospital worked on her for more than four hours to remove shards of wood and glass from her left eye and face.
"(Doctors) told my dad and me that if it would've hit me a little bit harder, I wouldn't be here with them, and that's kind of what scares me the most," Sheriff said.
Now Sheriff is moving forward on the road to recovery with her son by her side.
"I don't really like to ask for help, but I know I'm going to need it, so I'll take anything I can get," Sheriff said.
She said her doctors told her she would be recovering for the next eight months to a year. At the moment, Sheriff and her son are living with her parents while she recovers, and she said she hopes to get back to work in a couple of months.