“Not all heroes wear capes.” This quote depicts the story of a pregnant woman who jumped out the window to save her unborn child. The mom, Rachel Standfest, found herself facing a life-threatening situation when their apartment was engulfed in flames.
On May 24, 2023, Rachel Standfest was at her parents’ house sorting out details for her upcoming baby shower. Meanwhile, her husband Travis was at their apartment resting. Upon returning home, Rachel detected the smell of smoke and hurried to wake Travis while alerting her mother.
“The last thing I remember is my mom yelling, ‘You need to get out now,’ and Travis pushing out the screen in the window,” Rachel said. Travis assisted them as Rachel and their dog dared to escape from the second-story window. But he quickly left the building to stay safe when the flames got closer.
“I helped to get Rachel out of the window, and then I picked up my dog and tossed him out,” her husband told TODAY.com. “By that time, the flames were coming out the window, so I decided to run through it because I figured I could get out faster. There weren’t any flames on the stairs yet. But I fell, and then I remember getting up and running through it,” he said.
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“When I hit halfway through the barn, I could feel my face and hands burning.” By the time he got outside, Travis found his wife unconscious on the ground as they waited for an ambulance. Eventually, Rachel regained consciousness and, with assistance, she walked to the ambulance for medical attention.
“I don’t remember anything,” Racheal said. “My parents said because I was walking and talking, they didn’t think it would be as severe as it was.” Firefighters say the fire was the most intense in the past five years.
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Thankfully, the family was not caught in the inferno. “The building had collapsed on itself, so getting to some of the fire underneath layers and layers of all of this material was difficult,” Grand Rapids fire chief Luke Werdon told local NBC affiliate WOOD-TV.
“The cause will likely be undetermined due to the extent of the fire. It destroyed a lot of the evidence,” Werdon added. All that remained after the fire were a picture of the couple with their dog, a Bible, and a T-shirt.
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The couple suffered burns. Rachel experienced second and third-degree burns “across about a third of her body,” Doctor Amy Spencer said. She also suffered a skull fracture from jumping out the window.
When the pair arrived at the hospital, the doctors performed an emergency cesarean section to deliver their baby. “They thought it would be safer for everyone to deliver the baby,” Spencer tells TODAY.com. “The baby was doing well from the moment that she delivered.
Rachel’s recovery was difficult due to the skull fracture. She needed cognitive therapy and extended rest. Despite being discharged after a month, she returned for follow-up skin grafts. Most of the time, she suffered persistent pain at the graft sites.
Now, nine months later, the Standfests are slowly recovering and adjusting to their new roles as parents. “Early fall is when we felt normal,” Rachel Standfest told TODAY.com. “We’re just trying to figure it out. We have this beautiful story and testimony, and we know God has a purpose for us now.”
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