RED LAKE, Minn. — A grandmother from the Red Lake Reservation continues to defy the odds.

It’s been more than a week since 68-year-old Shirley Corona’s home exploded, leaving her with burns and broken bones all over her body, on Friday, Oct. 4.

She remains heavily sedated after a number of procedures.

There’s barely anything left of her house, and if you didn’t know about the explosion, you likely may not have known a house once existed.

“She’s a fighter, she’s fighting right now,” said Elliot Mendoza, Shirley’s son.

He remains by his mother’s side at Regions Hospital Burn Center in St. Paul. The mother of three and grandmother of nine suffered burns to her face, upper torso and back. She has third-degree burns from her waist down. Corona also suffered broken bones throughout her body, including eight fractured ribs, a fractured spine, fractured shoulder blade and a fractured pelvis.

“Whatever it was, it blew her away, she went flying,” Mendoza said. “I am very thankful my mom is here, she’s a fighter and she will make it through all of this, she’s already showing all the signs that she is definitely 100% going to make it through this.”

The twist is that Mendoza may have saved his mother’s life. He called her 30 minutes before the explosion.

“If I didn’t call, she would not have woke up with all that propane leaking into the house,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza lived with his mother at the home. However, on Oct. 4, he was in the Twin Cities for work. He was at the hospital when his mother arrived.

“When she heard my voice, she looked at me, she opened her eyes,” he said. “She wanted to get up, she was trying to get up and I told her to take it easy, she squeezed my hand, I told her I was going to be there until we go back home.”

What caused the explosion is still unknown. It will likely be weeks before Corona can talk to provide any answers on what happened. The single-story home had been in the family for generations. Corona had lived in it for the past 13 years. Mendoza said he tries to avoid seeing the aftermath.

“Very difficult to process, it still is,” he said.

There is still no long-term prognosis for Corona, but her son says doctors have told him she will likely remain hospitalized for months. The big question when she is finally released is, where will she live?

“Hopefully, it’s not going to be too traumatizing for my mom,” Mendoza said. “Who knows, something like that, what even makes it OK to even trust any house to live in.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Corona with her medical bills and to rebuild.

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