A tragic car accident killed his family’s three children. Six months later, a true miracle happens to them. The death of a child is any parent’s worst nightmare. Losing all of them then, is practically beyond imagination. But tragically, that’s what happened to this couple when their three kids were killed in a horrifying crash.
Aged five, four and two, the children had barely had lives at all. But then, just six months on the Greekstricken, parents made a miraculous discovery.
Lori and Chris Cobalt had enjoyed a happy home filled with love, laughter and the boundless energy of three young children. The Cobles were the proud barons of five year old Kyle, four yearold Emma and twoyearold Katie. But their lively household would suddenly fall silent one awful day.
And that happened to be the one following Kyle’s fifth birthday, Mom Laurie, along with Grandma Cindy, had packed up the kids and headed to the mall. Kyle was particularly excited to ride the Ferris wheel set up there, along with taking a fun visit to the pet store.
As the day wore on, three young children grew tired and as a result, mom and Grandma piled the kids into the minivan to head home. Then, when Laurie was stopped in a line of traffic exiting the highway, she turned and saw little Katy starting to nod off. That, however, is when tragedy struck.
As Laura tickled Katy’s toes to keep her awake, an enormous rig was powering towards the back of her minivan. While traveling at 50 miles miles per hour and fully loaded with 40 £0 of freight, the rig crashed into the rear of the minivan, completely destroying it. Upon impact, Lori was knocked out cold. The injuries that everyone sustained in the wreck were so severe that the family had to be separated to receive the best care possible.
Lori and Cindy were taken to one hospital, Kylan, Katie sent to another and Emma went to yet another. Dad, Chris was at work when he received a devastating phone call. Chris immediately went to the hospital where Laurie had been placed and upon his arrival he was ushered to a private room close to the emergency one. There he was delivered some life changing news.
As he told CNN.
I literally ran to the emergency room. At that point, they took me back into a small room and the doctor told me, I’m sorry, but Katie has expired.
Before the grief of losing his twoyearold daughter could register, though, Chris received a call from another hospital. He explained to CNN.
A few more minutes went by. He told me there was a call from the doctor from Saddleback Hospital and I got on the phone and the first thing I said was, Please tell me Em is alive. And he said, I’m sorry, but Ms. Expired, so I just dropped the phone. I just couldn’t look at what’s happening.
With Lori. Now conscious, it was up to Kris to deliver her the awful news. Despite Laurie’s injuries in grief, however, Chris swiftly made his way to another hospital to be by Kyle’s side. Seeing Kyle and with his eyes open immediately filled Chris with optimism.
The news doctors delivered, however, was yet another hammered blow. Kyle’s brain was failing to receive an oxygen supply, and the suggested course of action was to take the five year old off the life support machine. Meanwhile, by now, Lori was stable enough to be transported to her son’s hospital so the couple could say goodbye to him together. As Chris elaborated to CNN.
She’S climbing out of the wheelchair as the best she can to hug Kyle, and he’s got to go be with his sisters. Now sisters are waiting for him. So we stopped life support. The machines went dark and the room went dark and I held my hand on his chest and so I stopped eating. He was gone.
Kyle had been a vivacious boy, full of beans and very popular with other kids. Quieter than her older brother, Amber was nonetheless very brave, with an adventurous streak. She loved to have fun and was filled with boundless energy. Meanwhile, Katie, the youngest, was very sociable and loved to dress up as a Princess.
Understandably, the loss of all three of them would change the Kobos lives forever, and the nature of their new reality only hit them during their funeral arrangements. Laurie told CNN the day before the funeral, we did a viewing. We got to see the kids one last time. They opened the doors, and in the back of the room were just three little caskets in a semicircle. The devastation both parents felt was naturally all consuming, and Chris described that feeling as best he could to CNN.
To some degree, you want to be with the children and this constant feeling of grief, he said. You could easily consider taking your own life, because maybe it will be better in the sense that you’ll see them again. But Kristen, Lori, along with Cindy and Lori’s two older brothers, pulled together and somehow made it through the insurmountable heartbreak.
And after having taken to describing themselves as parents without children, Chris and Lori decided to try for more kids just three months after the tragedy, realizing they could have difficulty conceiving. Naturally, Lori and Chris duly attempted IVF treatment, and out of a possible ten eggs, three were fertilized.
Now, the couple had actually planned to keep only two of the three that is, until they received some shocking news that would change their minds. They learned they were expecting two girls and a boy. We took that as a sign from above, said Lori. So very nearly on the one year anniversary of the tragedy, Lori delivered triplets Jake, Ashley and Ellie. And while there no replacement for the couple’s lost children. Sure enough, a little happiness soon returned to the Kobo’s lines. Meanwhile, the rigged driver held responsible for the accident.
Jorge Romero had a past record of speeding and was handed a sentence of a year in prison for three charges of vehicular manslaughter. Lori and Chris nonetheless forgave him, though perhaps because Romero, a father of three, was beside himself with guilt. In fact, the Kobos went on to sue the California Department of transportation for wrongful death.
Since the area in which the accident occurred has a known trouble spot, however, they eventually lost the case. As for the triplets, they’re now eight years old and know all about their elder brother and sisters through photos around the home and their mum and dad’s stories. What’s more, the family regularly pays tribute to Kyle, Emma and Katie with picnics near their graves.
Indeed, Laurie admitted to CNN that she believes their happiness now is all down to their lost children saying, I think it’s a miracle. I think they helped us. I think they made it possible.