A 15-year-old Fleming Island girl suffered serious injuries — including a fractured skull and kidney lacerations — after being hit by a car in a crosswalk last week.
According to a GoFundMe post from her father, Kevin Haynes, the teen was walking in the intersection of Eagle Harbor Parkway and Town Center Boulevard at 8 p.m. Monday night when she was hit.
A 68-year-old female driver failed to notice the girl, named Sadie, as she entered the crosswalk and struck her with her sedan.
The Fleming Island High School student was rushed to HCA Orange Park, where she is being treated for broken bones and lacerations.
Sadie was initially placed on a ventilator as doctors addressed a broken tibia and fibula, pelvic fractures, eye socket and cheek fractures, a kidney laceration, and skull fractures, according to the post.
But the campaign’s organizer said she made progress over the last week and had been removed from the ventilator.
“Now we are on the slow path to waking up,” Haynes wrote. “Just slowly taking down the sedatives and eliciting responses to more complex instructions. She can and does respond to instructions, but they are a bit delayed.”
An MRI scheduled for Monday will determine if the brain bleeding has subsided.
The fundraiser had drawn nearly $8,000 in donations in less than a week.
“Sadie is on a long road to recovery, and her family will be in need of assistance to help with the medical bills, supporting her during the rehabilitation, and building back her mind and body,” the post states.
Friends and family described Sadie as a warm and generous soul who had just begun to formulate visions of her future.
“Her story is much like any other 15-year-old navigating life and all the obstacles and achievements that come at this age,” Haynes wrote. “Through it all, she is true to herself, opens her heart to others, and gives more than she receives.”
“Thank you again for the love, words of support, and your generosity,” Haynes wrote. “We have a long, long road ahead of us, and we are over the moon grateful.”
The Citizen will update Sadie’s progress as her rehabilitation advances.
