The Manhattan mom brain-damaged when a shopping cart was dropped on her from an elevated walkway says she’s eager to get back to helping young boys like the two who nearly killed her.
Speaking for the first time in public since her brush with death, Marion Hedges said Monday that while she’s made strides in her recovery, she has “a long way to go.”
“I’m only focusing on recovery and focusing on helping other young boys that need help,” said Hedges, a longtime volunteer for the do-good group the New York Junior League.
She was severely injured Oct. 30 when two boys horsing around at the East River Plaza Mall in East Harlem tossed a Target store shopping cart from a fourth-story walkway.
The two 12-year-olds, referred to in court papers as Raymond H. and Jeovanni R., have since pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six months in group homes. Jeovanni also wrote Hedges an apology letter.
Hedges suffered head trauma, busted ribs and was in a coma for weeks. She said she remains blind in her left eye and still has trouble walking, but no longer needs a cane.
“I’m doing one day at a time,” the married mother of two said outside her upper West Side home.
Her attorney, Thomas Moore, revealed to the Daily News that his investigation has found that a similar cart-tossing incident occurred at the same E. 117th St. mall 10 months before Hedges was hurt.
“The incident was chillingly similar,” said Moore, who has filed a civil suit accusing the mall of negligence stemming from a lapse in security.
“Once all the facts are known in this case, it’s going to be clear what happened to Marion Hedges was eminently avoidable.”
Hedges said Monday she never received Jeovanni’s letter of apology.
“I haven’t heard from them, but I wish them well, I do,” Hedges said, who has a 13-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter. “I feel sorry for them.”
Defense attorney Shahabudeen Ally insisted that Jeovanni’s letter was given to prosecutors, who said they forwarded it to the victim’s lawyer.
“If the family didn’t receive it, there is some gap there somehow,” Ally said.
In his letter obtained Monday by The News, Jeovanni, now 13, wrote, “I’m sorry for what I did. I’m also sorry for your family. I did not mean to hurt you. My actions were stupid.”
Moore said Hedges has undergone intense therapy to learn how to walk and speak again but is still in pain and has balance problems.
“She knows she's a shadow of what she was,” he added. “She needs someone with her at all times.”
2 weeks ago
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