A Birmingham-area nurse was critically injured the Interstate 459 crash that killed a DeKalb County couple earlier this week.

Friends have started a GoFundMe for 39-year-old Kellie Stephenson, whose Mazda CX-5 was struck head-on Tuesday night.

“We are so blessed that Kellie is still here with us as she suffered an unexpected seizure,’’ friend Alexa Taylor wrote in the GoFundMe.

Stephenson suffered a brain bleed, abdominal trauma with damaged organs, a femur fracture, a tibia/fibula fracture, an open pelvic fracture and multiple rib and spinal fractures.

“She has a long road of recovery ahead of her,’’ Taylor wrote. “She will have to undergo a series of surgeries as well as rehabilitation.”

Stephenson, who lives in Irondale, was on her way home from her job as a traveling nurse when the crash happened just after 8 p.m. on I-459 southbound near U.S. 280.

Senior state Trooper Justin O’Neal said Susan Jones, 58, was driving a Jeep Cherokee that collided head on with Stephenson’s vehicle.

After the initial impact, O’Neal said, the Cherokee crashed into the Freightliner commercial truck – a street sweeper – that driven by 55-year-old Lolita R. Matthews of Leeds.

Jones and her husband, 63-year-old Jefferson S. Jones, of Rainsville, were pronounced dead on the scene about 30 to 45 minutes later.

Stephenson was taken to UAB Hospital.

Matthews was also taken to the hospital. The severity of her injuries has not been released.

Donations to the GoFundMe for Stephenson can be made here.