 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Victim grateful for child that survived
By RYAN DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Lying in a hospital bed, her mind clouded by pain killing drugs, Jean Nicole Littell started to count her losses from an accident she couldn't remember. Her mother told her she had been hit by a pick-up truck, and she knew it had broken her body and ended her five-month pregnancy. Nicole also believed she had lost the centerpiece of her life, her 1-year-old daughter, whom she was pushing in a stroller. "I didn't think Zabreia had made it," said Nicole, 20. "I looked at myself and I just pictured the driver hitting and her flying out." Nicole's mother kept telling her Zabreia was fine, but she figured her mother was lying to spare her from more trauma. Two days after the accident, Shirley Littell, Nicole's mother, reunited Nicole and Zabreia. Minus a small scratch on her liver and a broken leg, Zabreia was just fine. "I believe you now," Nicole said to her mother. Nicole, a single mother from Dade City, was walking with a friend and their children to the grocery store July 28 when she and her stroller were blasted from behind by a hit-and-run driver. Nicole remembers nothing from the entire day. She and Zabreia were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa. Zabreia was released last week. Nicole was transferred Sunday to Tampa General Hospital, where she underwent reconstructive surgery on both of her hips Tuesday and spoke Thursday with the St. Petersburg Times. Repeatedly pulling her neck brace below her mouth, she said a new stroller saved Zabreia's life. Five days before the accident Zabreia got a new, smaller stroller for her first birthday from one of Nicole's friends. She could easily hop out of it, so Nicole made a habit of buckling Zabreia inside. When the pick-up hit the stroller, it tumbled several times, a witness said, but Zabreia remained buckled inside. Luis Enrique Gomez, 33, of Dade City has been charged two counts of leaving the scene of a crash with injuries and driving on a suspended license in connection with the accident. He remained in Pasco County jail Thursday in lieu of $10,000 bail. "I hope he gets what he deserves," Nicole said. "I hope they can give him life. It's his fault I lost my baby." Nicole just wants to walk again, though not on the road, she said. What looks like a little metal tower, but is actually a hip brace, protrudes from her midsection. For the next month and a half it will prevent her from holding her daughter. It's unclear when she will go home from the hospital, she said. Nicole moved to Dade City from upstate New York six years ago with her mother and brother. She moved out of her mother's house in January to live with Zabreia in a public housing complex about a mile away. Mother was Nicole's full-time job, public assistance paid her bills. Even while she was pregnant she would walk to the grocery store and to her mother's house, as often as three times a day. Zabreia always came along. Nicole was eagerly anticipating a second daughter. "If she'd have been born, she might have had problems (because of when she was born)," Nicole said. "God probably took her because it was the best thing." After the crash Nicole actually did gave birth to her daughter, who was due Nov. 26, but she was pronounced dead. The Littell family buried the girl a week ago. Stuck in intensive care, Nicole couldn't attend the funeral. A chaplain came to her hospital room, but she turned him away. "I couldn't deal with it," Nicole said. "It was hurting me and I didn't want to hurt myself anymore." She hasn't mustered the courage to see her mother's pictures of the little girl who would have been her daughter. She also can't find a way to ask doctors if her shattered pelvic area will allow her to have more kids. "I'll be alright if I can't because I have my one," she said. -- Ryan Davis can be reached at (800) 333-7505, ext. 3452, or by e-mail at
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From today's Hernando Times |
