SALEM — When Quincey Gafter stepped into the crosswalk at Washington and Mill streets last February, she was heading home. Little did she know it would take months to get there.
"I remember stepping onto the crosswalk and I remember getting hit," Gafter said. "I remember waking up from being unconscious; I was knocked out for a short period of time."
Gafter, 35, was struck by a Dodge van that day, Feb. 25, 2009, and dragged 60 feet, suffering injuries to her back, hip, kidneys, liver and aorta. The driver, 38-year-old Roman Tejada, told police he didn't see Gafter as he turned onto Washington Street from Mill Street.
More than a year later, Gafter is still healing from painful injuries, but also struggling with new problems. She faces a mountain of medical debt — $10,000 so far, she said — and has been unemployed since she lost her job as an executive assistant in Boston five months after the accident. Along with the job, she lost her private health insurance, and now relies on a state plan.
She worries about becoming homeless.
Gafter was taken to Salem Hospital immediately after the crash and later flown by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She spent 10 days in the intensive care unit.
She spent another two months at Shaughnessy-Kaplan Rehabilitation Hospital in Salem, went home for two weeks, and was readmitted because her wounds were not healing properly. She went through more surgery and was bedridden until November; more surgeries are planned, she said.
Gafter got an insurance payment, but because the driver carried only the minimum insurance, the settlement was for $20,000. After fees and the lawyer's cut, Gafter said she received $12,000.
"A measly $12,000 doesn't last long when you have to pay rent, bills and food," Gafter said. "In six months, the money's going to be gone. ... It's very scary."
She is angry that the driver, who was cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, has been able to go on with his life, while she has been struggling.
She has applied for disability assistance, but said a decision can take months, and she has not heard yet whether she qualifies.
Gafter, a native New Yorker who had lived in Salem for about five years before the accident, has started applying for jobs in Boston as an executive assistant, but has had no luck so far. Even if she's successful in finding a job, she said, she's not sure she could handle it. The trip was hard on her physically, and she's not sure she can take the commute, twice a day, five days a week.
She doesn't have a car, and she rides the bus to Peabody, where she undergoes physical therapy three days a week. Those bus rides are painful enough.
"I don't know what the future holds," she said.
Staff writer Bruno Matarazzo Jr., can be reached at bmatarazzo@salemnews.com
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