Southeast crash survivor, 21, 'has a long road ahead'
VALHALLA – A month after he was in a pickup truck crash in Southeast, Victor Gonnella IV remains at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital with a broken neck, a broken back, a broken arm and a severe head injury. The 21-year-old Brewster man can't enter rehab yet because he lost so much weight in the month since the accident.
He has a feeding tube and, after being in a medically induced coma for three weeks, does not yet fully understand what happened to him or the tough rehabilitation that lies ahead.
"He has a long road ahead of him, month and months of rehabilitation," his mother, Alison Gonnella, said Thursday in the lobby of the children's hospital at Westchester Medical Center. She has been staying at the nearby Ronald McDonald House since Victor Gonnella was flown to the hospital after the early morning crash. His brother, Tyler Gonnella, 19, has been staying with friends.
"Tyler won't go home until his brother goes home," their mother said.
Victor Gonnella was one of four young men in the truck that Michael Skalarski, also 21, was driving on Milltown Road early March 17 when he apparently lost control and hit a tree. Skalarski was also seriously injured, though the two in the back seat were not.
State police, who suspect speed was a factor, said the crash remains under investigation.
Alison Gonnella, 50, said every day is a struggle for her son and, in turn, for the family. Victor Gonnella has good days and bad ones.
"Sometimes he'll say, 'I miss my brother, I miss my dog, I miss my house,' " she said. "And he'll say, 'This is so unfair,' and it is."
Victor Gonnella has his jaw wired shut and has had several surgeries. He tires easily.
His mother and his father are divorced and remarried, but the two families are focused on his recovery, his mother said. They've created a Facebook page, Stay Strong Victor Gonnella. Sometimes, his mother said, she visits the site to seek her own strength.
"I was a little upset when I woke up this morning, then I went to the Facebook page and I read some of the comments. ... It's what's keeping me going. Even if you think you're alone, you're not," she said.
Strangers who have visited the Facebook page have left notes of encouragement; other people have left food for the family at the hospital.
"It's the little things that mean so much, some of it from complete strangers," Alison Gonnella said.
She also praised the hospital staff, from doctors and nurses who seem to have a personal interest in her son's recovery to hospital security.
Alison Gonnella said her son is her hero as she watches him fight through his recovery. She said she has other heroes as well — like the Lisi family of Brewster. Danielle Lisi was 16 when she suffered a serious brain injury in a September 2002 crash, also on Milltown Road. As the community rallied around the Lisis, Alison Gonnella would often donate at car washes and other fundraisers, she said.
"Not a day goes by that I don't think of them," she said. "Unless it happens to you, you can't imagine what it's like. Even though I never met the Lisis, I now understand the emotions they went through."
Twitter: @CorcoranTerence
On the Web
A Facebook page is dedicated to Victor Gonnella's recovery from a serious injury in a March 17 crash in Southeast. Visit it here: www.facebook.com/#!/victor.gonnella
How to help
Victor Gonnella's family expects his medical bills to be astronomical. They have created a site for donations. Visit it here: www.gofundme.com/86cgmw