Victoria and Wren were married on November 9th, 2024 and should be enjoying the start to this new chapter in their lives. However, their happiness was to be short lived. On February 16th 2025 they were involved in a terrifying and life threatening car accident. After an enjoyable evening playing games with their friends, they were heading home on 295 South when they were struck from behind by another vehicle. The police report stated that the witness said that the vehicle that struck the girls was going approximately 100 MPH. The impact caused Wren's car to come off the ground, proceeding to roll 4-5 times before it was stopped, becoming wedged between some trees. The car landed on it's side, with the drivers side on the ground. Neither of the front airbags deployed and Victoria's seatbelt did not lock, thus not keeping her in her seat.

This is the call no parent ever wants to receive..... Amazingly, the girls phones automatically called 911 and help was there almost within 5 minutes. Wren was able to call her Mom (Rita) from inside the car. Rita went straight to the scene where she called me immediately in NY, keeping me abreast of the situation as it was happening. My world stopped as I listened helplessly to the accounts.

Because the car was on it's side and the seatbelt didn't hold her to the seat, Victoria had to reach out her window to try and hold herself up as she hung from the seatbelt, Wren was caught by the steering wheel, but was also trying to hold Victoria up and to keep her talking so she wouldn't lose consciousness. Wren was able to open the sunroof a little to help the rescue team assess them and get them out, but the fire and rescue still

had to cut them both from the car. At that time I was being told that Victoria had a head laceration, and what the paramedics thought was a bone sticking out of her thigh. Wren told the medics that it wasn't a bone, but a large piece of glass stuck in her thigh. Besides the trauma, Wren seemed miraculously to only received cuts, bruises and whiplash. When they made it to the hospital they told me that Victoria went immediately into the OR for her head wound and thigh laceration. I've since been told that the verbiage they used (head laceration) had actually been referring to the fact that she had been partially scalped. After surgery they took her in for an MRI which showed that she had fractures in her C6, C7, T1,T2,T3 and T7 of her cervical and thoracic spine vertebrae, along with a broken left clavicle and the leg laceration (ie giant piece of glass stuck in her leg). By this time I was able to speak with Wren. I can't imagine being stuck in a car, trying to hold my husband up while he dangled above me with his scalp hanging from his head. How she stayed calm and aware enough to make sure Victoria didn't lose consciousness I don't know. But I'm so thankful for her. I flew in on February 17th, and was picked up by Rita who took me straight to the hospital. I can't imagine how she must have felt being there, seeing the carnage, watching as our girls were cut from that car, and having to repeat what was going on to me. I can tell you all the feelings that went through me when I saw my baby girl laying there in that hospital bed, head bound from the surgery, the neck to waist brace the anxiety etched on her face. Fear of course, anger at the idiot who did this to them, and relief because I could touch her and hold her. After seeing pictures of the car, I don't know how either of them walked away from this accident, but I thank God that they are still here with us. 

The man (and the woman with him) who hit the girls were also brought to the hospital. The woman was threating and aggressive when she saw Rita at the hospital. To the point where Victoria had to be listed under a false name for her protection. The man who caused this had just been released from a 12 year prison sentence with10 years probation. Which that sentence was a plea deal. We looked up his records and I'm not even going to go into detail about the charges that he was in prison for (I'll only say it involved 17 accounts of a little girl, or girls from ages 3 to 9). My mind can't fathom how he was even out of prison. So obviously this man has nothing, but that's okay because things like this are why we are required to have car insurance right? Well that's not how it works down here. In Florida you are not required to carry bodily injury on your car insurance *who knew*. So of course he didn't carry it, so they recieve nothing from the insurance. What does that mean for our girls? That they are pretty much S.O.L. Bill and I put a lot of emphasis on Gap insurance with Victoria when she was younger, so thankfully they did have it on the car. That being said with the Gap insurance they didn't owe anything on the vehicle. But now they would need a new car with new car payments. The girls did carry $10,000 uninsured motorist on their own policy, which covers them both for $10,000 each, but that doesn't amount to anything in an accident like this. The girls aquired a very well know lawfirm, but they were told that because the man has nothing and didn't carry bodily injury, they only have their own insurance to work with. He said that Victoria's medical bills have already exceeded $800,000 dollars (and no I didn't hit one to many 0's on that) So he thinks he can work with the insurance agency and medical to where she hopefully wont owe anything, but that is the best she can look forward to. Wren won't be receiving anything from the insurance either.

It also doesn't end there...

Victoria was admitted to the hospital on Feb 16th, and released on Feb 20th. We asked for rehab but were denied. I put in for FMLA to be able to stay with her, and I thank God for that, because on Feb 25th, Victoria woke with terrible pain in her leg. After I got her seated, I went to get some rub for her leg, when she called out for me, I ran back to the room and she was falling head first out of the chair. I caught her and had her stand up so I could get the chair, but all of sudden she was saying that things didn't make sense, she couldn't tell up from down and was incredibly confused. At that point, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she started to fall straight back. I grabbed her by the nightgown and tried to stop her from falling. She did hit her head on the ground, but not very hard. I then called 911 who were here in less than 5 minutes thank God. They tried to get her to stand, but as soon as they got her up, her legs went out from under her and they had to lay her back on the ground. They then called for more rescue. I leaned over her head trying to talk to her, but her eyes were once again in the back of her head and she wasn't responding. She was transported to the hospital for a second time and after a quick assessment she was taken immediately to surgery again. She had a blood clot in her right leg, several in her left leg, one in her right lung and multiple in her left lung. After the surgery she was taken to ICU. The have diagrams of the lungs and I guess they take the blood clots out and lay them on the diagram to measure and show where they were. Hers were so large and seemed to block off every valve of the right lung. So this is twice now that she almost lost her life and the man who caused all of this doesn't even have to acknowledge what he did in any shape or form. 

So we asked the lawyer about the fact that the front airbags didn't deploy and Victoria's seatbelt not holding her in her seat. They don't want to pursue Kia because the car was a 2013 and Wren was not the first owner. What does any of that have to do with the fact that the equipment failed and as a result Victoria received extensive injuries? He said with anything over time things degrade. Were you ever told that at a certain year you should check or change your airbags? Because I know I wasn't. Isn't there a dummy light when they aren't working correctly? It also was inspected.

So when it is all said and done, the girls have been through such trauma, Victoria will have injuries that are slowly healing, but will affect her down the road. They both carry the fear that (per the Hematologist) she is more likely than the average person to have recurring blood clots because of the injuries to her body and that could possibly cause her to just not wake up one day. So in one night their lives were changed forever. There is no aknowledgement of any wrong doing, no compensation for the pain and suffering and no finacial obligation from anyone. Victoria has been out of work for three months and is only just now getting her short term disability (60% of her regular income), but that doesn't stop the mortgage company, utilities or bill collectors from knocking at their door. We have helped them where we can, but our help is not enough so it has been suggested that we start a GiveSendGo fund for the girls to help them get back on their feet, to help lighten the financial burdon this injustice has brought upon them.