GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Kristyn Dean is fighting for a "normal" life, much like she at first had to fight to speak. Her voice, broken, after she was allegedly strangled by 33-year-old Adam Bol at her Wyoming home. She spent 9 days in the hospital, and is now recovering at Mary Free Bed.
Kristyn's mom, Linda Coffman, says her daughter was sleeping when it happened, and when she woke up at the hospital, her daughter had no idea what happened to her or why she was there.
“So I was like, 'Adam did it'. And she was like, 'why?' And I was like, 'I don’t know. I don’t know.' But they caught him,” Linda Coffman said.
Wyoming Police arrested Bol shortly after the incident on November 10.
But for Krystin, it will be a long road to recovery. Still, she wants to share her story.
“She said: 'I want everybody to know. So they don’t end up like me',” Coffman said.
So Linda met with FOX 17 outside Mary Free Bed, leaving her daughter's side to share this:
“If you get hit, if you get pushed one time, leave the relationship," Coffman said. "She only got pushed once last year, and she didn’t think anything like this was going to happen to her."
Coffman, saying once is too many times for a partner to lay hands on you.
Krystin suffered a brain injury as a result of the strangulation. She's re-learning how to walk, feed herself, and speak.
“They’re doing speech therapy, where they’re teaching her how to talk. she’s doing good with that. She’s finally got her voice back,” Coffman said.
The YWCA saying, strangulation is a major red flag. Survivors of strangulation are 7 times more likely to die of domestic homicide.
"I think people sometimes conflate strangulation with choking," YWCA CEO Charisse Mitchell said. "Strangulation is the actual obstruction of airways. It’s preventing oxygen from getting to your vital organs. It doesn’t take much to do it. With as much pressure as a handshake, you can prevent oxygen from getting to the brain."
For Krystin, her motivation: getting back to being healthy, so she can be there for her three sons.
