Tri-City skateboarder was released from a Seattle hospital but delayed by a snowstorm
A 12-year-old Enterprise Middle School student came home Tuesday, four days after she hit the side of car skateboarding in West Richland.
Mercedes “Sadie” Parsons is in high spirits as she recovers from a broken leg, a broken eye socket and a traumatic brain injury, said her mother Jamie Steinert.
“She’s doing all right. She’s had a positive attitude through all of this,” Steinert said.
Sadie was skateboarding with a friend when they decided to cross Paradise Way near Enterprise Middle School around 6 p.m. Friday.
She remembers hearing her friend yell to stop, but can’t remember what happened next.
Police say she collided with a car in the crosswalk.
She was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle that night, where she needed a titanium plate to repair her leg. She also was left with a serious concussion.
The doctors released her Monday to her mother who works as a caregiver, but Steinert had to wait a day to get her home because of the snowstorm on Snoqualmie Pass.
It will likely be another two or three weeks before Sadie can get back to classes, and they need to return to Seattle for checkups, said Steinert said.
But Sadie is anxious to recover so she can get back to what she loves, sports. She was disappointed to have missed the start of her basketball season. She also plays soccer, softball and is in cheer.
GoFundMe campaign
A friend Charlette Gilnes started a GoFundMe campaign to help offset the family’s medical and travel expenses.
By Tuesday, they’d received about $5,200 in donations and other offers to help the family of four.
Steinert and her husband, who works at Columbia Crest Winery, have a second daughter, who attends Hanford High.
Steinert said she was amazed by the community support. The cross-state traveling and time off from work could have made it hard to make ends meet.
“I wish I could line up and hug each one of them personally,” she said. “Me and my husband, we work 9-to-5 jobs. It would be very detrimental, if we didn’t have this amazing support from the community. We’re going to be OK.”
The Benton County native who grew up in Prosser said this kind of generosity is why she has stayed in the Tri-Cities.
Call to be safe
Now Steinert is hoping that her daughter’s example can help show why skateboarders always need their safety equipment and pedestrians need to be careful crossing streets. And, she said, drivers must remain vigilant in watching for both.
She regrets not making sure Mercedes wore her helmet when she left Friday. It may have lessened the severity of her injuries, she said.
“We’re so adamant when they’re young, but you get a little slack,” Steinert said. “She’s not going to touch any skateboard without that helmet on her head. ... I learned that lesson the hard way.”
“You feel like you read about these things happening to other people, but you never think it’s going to happen to you,” she said.