Good Samaritan loses legs while helping crash victim
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A good Samaritan's efforts to help a motorist who crashed in a storm went horribly wrong Sunday after another vehicle smashed into the damaged car.
Now Danielle Hagmann, 30, who lives across the Caloosahatchee River in North Fort Myers, Fla., is in the intensive care unit at Lee Memorial Hospital — one leg amputated just above the knee and the other at mid-thigh.
But Hagmann, a freelance licensed massage therapist, is considered an independent contractor at the spa in Estero, Fla., where she works; didn't qualify for health insurance at the small business; and hadn't bought a policy under the Affordable Care Act. She already is facing mountains of medical bills for her care and for potential prosthetics that could help her walk again.
"She could not have driven by that accident," said Hagmann's father, Steven Berkowitz, 64, of Cape Coral, Fla. "That's not in her nature. She does not regret stopping. She said she was meant to stop."
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She saw the original crash unfold, he said.
"If someone is hurt, she is there with a first-aid kit," said her stepmother, Ellie Sheva. "We've always said she had the 'wounded sparrow' syndrome."
She and her partner, Lyndsey Johns, have five children younger than 10, including three foster children. Friends and family are pitching in to help with their care while Hagmann is hospitalized.
Hagmann was helping Lauren Richardson of Ontario, Calif., who had been injured when she lost control of her car in a driving rain and hit a guardrail on Interstate 75. Hagmann had placed Richardson in her SUV and was walking over to the woman's wrecked Chrysler Sebring, resting partially in the right lane, when a car hit Richardson's wrecked vehicle and pinned Hagmann's legs against the guardrail.
Richardson was treated and discharged from the hospital. The driver who hit her Sebring was not hurt.
The Florida Highway Patrol investigating the crash and has not determined whether to file charges.
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Berkowitz, who created a GoFundMe account to raise money for his daughter's expenses, said she faces months — perhaps years — of therapy, medical care and prosthetic fittings. Hagmann hopes to move from the hospital to a rehabilitation center within two weeks.
A family friend also has established a second GoFundMe account.
A church group near St. Louis promised to donate an electric wheelchair for Hagmann by next week. Prosthetics will cost $10,000 to $15,000 for each leg, and they have to be replaced every five years, Berkowitz said he was told.
"We expect her medical bills to hit $1 million for care and prosthetics in the first year and probably $2 million lifetime," he said.
Despite the daunting future, Berkowitz said his daughter is eager to move on.
"She is in unexplainably good spirits," he said. "Everything happens for a reason, she said. But she's ready to strap on legs and start walking."
Johns has been at Hagmann's bedside almost nonstop since the crash, caring for her spouse.
"Dani is amazing," Johns wrote in a text to The News-Press. "She is super strong, doing great, very high spirits. She is my hero."
Hagmann was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, but moved to Florida with her family when she was about a year old, Berkowitz said. Family plans to go to Disney World in May have been postponed but she still has plans to go to England with her best friend in July.
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Her father, who uses a wheelchair, said they'll all get to Disney World eventually.
"We can race our wheelchairs together," he said.
Follow Michael Braun on Twitter: @MichaelBraunNP