Woman’s Survival Amazes Doctors, Family

The 82-year-old woman clung to the thought of her great-grandchildren as the intruder dealt her blow after blow.

“She said the whole time, ‘Jesus protect me, I’ve got my babies and they need me,”’ Janis Nielsen said Friday.

On Dec. 3, Nielsen’s mother, Dorothy Kjera, was so brutalized during the attack that her blood was splattered against the walls and ceiling of her home of 38 years.

Doctors, police and Kjera’s family are amazed that the woman who loved most of all to baby-sit her great-grandchildren is still alive.

“She’s tougher than I ever gave her credit for,” Richard Nielsen said of his mother-in-law.

Kjera, a mother of one, grandmother of two and great-grandmother of four, remains in fair condition at Kootenai Medical Center. Henry W. Luke, a 38-year-old Coeur d’Alene man with a history of violence, has been charged with attempted murder.

One of Kjera’s greatest fears had been that someone might break into her home, the Nielsens say. “Her very worst nightmare came true - beyond what she ever thought could happen,” Janis Nielsen said.

Kjera still doesn’t remember everything that happened to her. “I think it’s probably a gift she doesn’t,” Richard Nielsen said.

Plastic surgeons have rebuilt parts of Kjera’s face, replacing crushed bones with titanium.

The rest may not be so easily patched.

The woman who so valued her independence that she held off moving in with her daughter will give up her home.

“She said she doesn’t ever want to be alone again,” Richard Nielsen said.

Kjera still fears Luke will get out of jail. In her dazed state at the hospital she thought she saw him out her window, even though she was on the second floor.

But the Nielsens say community support has been amazing and uplifting. The attack on Kjera has sparked outrage. Flowers and stuffed animals have come from people the family does not even know.

The Nielsens say Kjera has kept a good attitude and doesn’t hate her attacker.

“She just says, ‘I don’t want him to ever get loose and do this to anyone else,”’ Janis Nielsen said.

, DataTimes