Photo of couple reconnecting in hospital room goes viral

NASHVILLE, TN (KTRK) -- A photo of a young couple reconnecting after they were involved in a car crash in Tennessee has gone viral. As the saying goes, some pictures are worth much more than a thousand words.

Arika Stovall, 21, and her boyfriend Hunter Hanks, were on their way home last Friday night when the couple was in a car accident, nearly slamming into a bridge support. Neither one remembered how it happened on New Year's Day.

"I don't know how we lived through that," Stovall said.

The picture of Hanks' Toyota Tundra shows the injuries they suffered.

"I got a good gash across the forehead here," Hanks added.

The graphic design student says she never imagined the amount of attention they would receive after the picture of the couple reconnecting inside Stovall's hospital room went viral.

"All I cared about was seeing her and making sure she was ok before me, I didn't care what happened to me as long as she was all right," Hanks said.

The couple say they don't quite understand how the picture has made its way around the world.

"I mean, we've gotten hundreds of messages just telling us that our story brought them out of a dark place in their life and changed their life and it changed their life," Stovall said.

A life changing moment for them and a moment that changed the lives of strangers.