Teen faces long mend after Las Vegas bus stop crash

Shawn Wang could have died, like the others.

Johnni Lee Garner died. She was 49. Gerber Hernan Ayala-Tomasino Jr., died too. He was 24. So did Margoth Gonzalez, 65, and Hyon Cooley, 47.

But Wang was lucky.

He doesn't remember the speeding car or even being at the bus stop the morning of Sept. 13. He doesn't remember the crash, the bodies on the ground, the ambulance ride or the police coming to arrest the driver, 24-year-old Gary Lee Hosey Jr.

He doesn't know what broke his leg, his neck, the orbital bone around his right eye. Did the car hit him directly? Was it a piece of debris? Maybe it was his impact with the ground.

Sometimes, now, Wang doesn't remember what he had for lunch, or if he ate at all that day.

"He forgot almost everything," said his mother, Lilly Jiang.

She had to talk for him during an interview recently because he doesn't speak English well, and because he doesn't know much about any of this, anyway. He laid in his hospital bed, playing with an iPad.

The crash injured eight people. It sent Hosey to jail, charged with 10 felonies, including four counts of felony DUI causing death. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for today.

Wang is expected to go home today. He has been in a rehabilitation facility for two weeks, following three weeks in the hospital.

After that, who knows? His mom will take care of him. She will try to figure out how to pay for more rehab. Maybe he will improve. Maybe he will go back to school.

That's what he was doing that morning, waiting for the bus to take him to school. Wang is a student at Global Community High School, which is for students like him, those who are new to America and don't speak much English.

Wang has been in the United States about a year and a half, his mother said. She has been here 10 years. She said that when his father got remarried and had more children in China, Wang moved to the United States.

They live on the west side; the school is on the east side. She is a masseuse. She doesn't always know when she is going to be working, so Shawn takes the bus to school.

She said she got a call that morning from one of his teachers. "Your son was in an accident at the bus stop," the teacher said.

After the crash, Shawn was rushed to University Medical Center. He was in terrible shape but seemed to be improving that first day, his mother said.

He didn't understand what happened, but he seemed like himself.

"Your son was lucky," the nurses told his mother.

They wanted to do an MRI on his head, Jiang said.

She began to worry. In the middle of the night, his eyes grew hazy. She called the nurse over. In the morning, they ran the test.

Wang had had a stroke, caused by a blood clot migrating into his brain.

He spent 23 days at UMC, but that is an acute care hospital, not a rehabilitation facility.

He has no insurance and no money. One of his doctors called HealthSouth, which specializes in physical therapy. Could they offer Wang pro bono treatment?

Two weeks of inpatient care at one of their facilities typically costs more than $10,000, said Kamie De Latorre, the admissions supervisor.

She said the facility Wang is in, near Charleston and Valley View boulevards, has 79 beds. There was room for Wang.

"I think everyone was really touched by what happened," she said.

Pamela Smith, the facility's lead physical therapist, said Wang came in 75 percent dependent on others for help. He couldn't talk at all, couldn't stand up or walk.

Now, as he leaves, he still needs help with about 25 percent of his daily tasks. He can walk with a walker if someone helps him stand up. He can talk a little, though it's mostly to his mother and always in Chinese.

His right side isn't working properly because of the stroke, but time should help fix that.

He still needs help getting into and out of bed. He needs help getting dressed.

Smith said Wang should continue to improve, though how much and how quickly depends on how much help he can get.

His long-term prognosis is unclear, but Smith is optimistic.

"He's 19," she said. "I'd say it's pretty good. The younger you are, the better off you are."

Still, his mother is worried.

"I don't know how he can take care of himself," she said. He can't count to 10 unless she starts him off. He's embarrassed to smile because his teeth were broken in the wreck.

She will do what she can, the best she can, because she is his mom.

"I'm lucky he still remembers me," she said.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.