Joggers Hit by Car Win $50M Settlement
Stacy Neria used to run six miles a day, six days a week - but she never trained on Sundays out of deference to her husband and to God.Now, Neria relies heavily on her husband and faith as she struggles to push forward after a hit-and-run accident left her with brain damage and paralyzed from the neck down.
The 35-year-old mother of three was jogging with three other women on April 8, 2006, when she was struck by a car from behind. Her friend, avid runner and mother Carol Daniel, 42, was paralyzed as well, but did not suffer brain damage.
The women and their husbands held a news conference Wednesday to discuss a settlement of about $50 million they received this week from the city of Dana Point. Their attorney argued that the bike lane they were running in was poorly marked and far too wide, leading motorists to believe it was another driving lane.
The driver of the car, William Todd Bradshaw, pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run causing permanent injury, and is serving four years in prison.
The money will go toward the millions of dollars in medical expenses the two women will rack up in their lifetimes, things their insurance doesn’t cover: 24-hour nursing care, intensive physical and speech therapy and possible experimental treatments.
“This is a bittersweet thing. We might have celebrated for 15 minutes or so, but that was it,” said Craig Daniel, Carol’s husband. “The reality continues and it’s been very tough.”
Neria and Daniel cannot do anything for themselves and Neria only recently began speaking again. She directs her motorized wheelchair with a joystick that she pushes with her chin.
Neria wore flip flops decorated with silver beaded flowers and had carefully painted toenails and a butterfly clip holding back her blonde hair. Her husband, Chris, adjusted her hands and gently brushed back her hair before pointing out that he had applied her red lipstick.
“He is amazing,” said a smiling Neria, a hair stylist before the accident.
Daniel uses her right hand, which has some movement, to guide her wheelchair. She was covered in a blanket and wore Ugg boots because she’s always cold. She declined to comment at the news conference, but said afterward that she just focuses on one day at a time.
“I’m coping, barely. That’s all I can say,” said Craig Daniel, who has three children with his wife.
Both husbands said their insurance does not cover 24-hour nursing care and they were forced to quit their jobs to care for their wives full-time.
“She hasn’t had that much therapy lately because the money hasn’t been there,” Craig Daniel said. “The insurance hasn’t been covering it.”
Chris Neria, once a regional sales manager, said it takes him up to five hours each morning to bathe, dress and feed his wife, including putting on her makeup and doing her hair. He also wakes up every two hours in the night to turn her body in the bed to avoid bed sores and other complications.
“You’re humbled because this job - taking care of yourself and three little kids and your wife - is impossible,” he said. “You’re really not capable, no one is capable, of handling that dynamic.”
The Nerias have found comfort in their church, their faith and in small hints of progress: Neria can now speak in a stilted whisper, she can swallow, she can take a sip of water and she can breathe on her own. But she still sobbed when asked what she missed most about her life before the accident.
“I miss being the wife and the mom that I was and what I always wanted to be,” she said in a hoarse, hesitant whisper.