Happy Thanksgiving: Man thanks stranger who hit his wife with a car
"The lady didn't mean to hit my wife. She was on her way home from work."
A US man has praised the driver who hit his wife, accepting it was an accident and thanking them for standing by on the scene.
Aurora, Colorado, local John Quigley was dozing off in bed when his local hospital called and reported that his wife, Shelly Sederstrom, was in intensive care. Sederstrom had been hit during a late-night run to the shops and was rushed to the Medical Center of Aurora.
"'Your wife is at the hospital, she is in intensive care on life support'... I immediately froze," Quigley told local TV station Denver7. "Unfortunately, my wife stepped out and didn't see it. It was dark. Maybe my wife wasn't paying attention. It happened."
Sederstrom suffered a fractured leg, fractured pelvis, had a blood clot in her lung and bleeding on her brain. Doctors said she was lucky to be alive after the accident. "She probably said, 'hey can you get up and go get me a pack of cigarettes or will you go with me?' And I didn't, I stayed in bed," Quigley said.
But despite the driver leaving his wife severely injured in hospital, Quigley did not blame her for the situation. "The lady didn't mean to hit my wife. She was on her way home from work." He even applauded the driver's action in helping his wife. "I want to thank them wherever they are because I don't know if she'd be here if they didn't stay on scene and get medical attention as quickly as possible."
The driver of the car has not been named. Quigley did extend an open message of gratitude to them, wherever they are. "I just want her and her family to have a very nice Thanksgiving and blessed Christmas because they gave me the best Christmas gift of my life by staying there."
The TV report from Denver can be seen here.