Mother who lost leg marks birthday at home
Sarah Gregory celebrated her 31st birthday Friday in the company of her husband and 7- month-old daughter in their Amherst home.
More than seven weeks after she was hit by a car on South Park Avenue and lost her left leg, Gregory was released from Erie County Medical Center.
"This is the best gift I could ever have — to go home and see my little girl," she said during a news conference at the medical center, her husband, Brian, by her side.
That she would live to see another birthday had been uncertain in the days immediately after the accident. But among the good Samaritans who came to her aid that day was a man who used his belt as a tourniquet to control the bleeding, giving her a chance.
"I know that they saved my life. They absolutely did," said Gregory, who was overcome with emotion several times while meeting with local media.
Gregory, a financial analyst for Sorrento Cheese Co. on South Park Avenue, was walking back to the office after lunch Sept. 17 when she was pinned against a parked minivan by a car traveling south.
The driver, Steven R. Cavarello, 30, of Lackawanna, was charged this week with felony vehicular assault, criminal possession of a controlled substance and driving while ability impaired by drugs.
"I have compassion for him, and I'm working on trying to forgive him," Gregory said.
She remembers what happened that afternoon, up until the time she arrived in the emergency room at the medical center. "I remember everything, but for now I try not to think about all of that," she said.
Witnesses reported that Gregory repeatedly screamed, "My baby, my baby, my baby."
"As I was laying there, my first thought was my daughter, my husband," Gregory said. "I need them — they need me. I just kept thinking that over and over again."
On a wall in her hospital room, a photograph of Annaliese, who was born April 1, helped keep Gregory motivated. During the "bad moments" of her hospitalization, Gregory said she would look at the picture and think: "I can move on. I can do it."
Gregory also was comforted by the support of people affected by similar injuries.
After her first day of physical therapy, Gregory said, she returned to her room to find a card from the mother of Mark Reed, the Buffalo firefighter who lost his right leg after being injured on the job in June 2007.
"Her card just made my day that day," Gregory said.
She also was contacted by Jeffrey Wojcik, the North Tonawanda resident who lost his left leg in a motorcycle accident in Amherst in April 2008. They're talking about establishing a support group.
"The biggest thing for me, ... I so appreciate everything the community has done. People that don't even know me," said Gregory, who moved to this area two years ago.
Her future includes lots of rehabilitation and, when medically possible, a prosthetic leg.
Though Annaliese was brought to the hospital for visits, Gregory said she was upset at having missed milestones in her daughter's life during the past two months. But she knows there still are many more to come.
"I hope I walk before she does," Gregory said.
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