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Crash survivor who lost legs vows 'I will walk'

Michael Braun
The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Danielle Hagmann's strength shows through the haze of pain.

Lyndsay Johns, left, and her wife Danielle Hagmann are thankful for the support they have received from the community since Danielle lost her legs in an accident after stopping to help another motorist who had crashed her car early Sunday morning.

"Yes, I'm in pain," the 30-year-old North Fort Myers woman whose legs were amputated after an early morning Sunday crash said from her Lee Memorial Hospital bed Thursday. "But I will get out of here. I will walk."

The woman everyone calls Dani is also a big believer in fate and responsibility.

"Everything happens for a reason," said Hagmann, who lost one leg below the knee and the other mid-thigh. "Cheesy as that sounds, don't be afraid. Even if it changes your life. You need to be able to live with yourself."

Hagmann said she remembers most of the events surrounding the crash, which remains under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol, until she passed out at the scene and awoke in the hospital.

"I have my moments," she said. "I know what happened."

Hagmann saw a Chrysler Sebring spin out during a heavy rain storm and hit the guardrail. She stopped to render aid and let the driver, Lauren Richardson of Ontario, Calif., sit in her GMC Arcadia. Everything was fine until she went to retrieve a blanket from her trunk. A massage therapist, Hagmann carries blankets. As she was unfolding a blanket she said she first heard and then felt the secondary crash.

The FHP report said Hagmann was standing between her  Arcadia and Richardson's car when a Mercedes hit the Sebring, which was still blocking part of Interstate 75 near the Luckett Road exit.

"I had looked, I remember my mom saying, 'Don't stand between cars at a crash,'" she said. "I thought 'is this a joke' and then excruciating pain and then no pain."

Her next memory was lying on the grass looking up at EMTs.

"Don't look at your legs," she said the EMTs told her. And, Hagmann said, she heard the voice of her grandmother, who passed away last year, telling her to relax and be calm.

She said she focused on the face of an EMT who was hovering over her, looking him in the eyes and giving him an order: "I have kids, and I'm going home. I'm not dying tonight. I'm going home."

Lyndsey Johns holds her wife Danielle’s hand as they speak about the accident that took Danielle’s legs.

That determined promise was the last thing she remembers, she said, before she awoke in the hospital.

The days since have been a kind crazy hodgepodge of medical care, family and friends tending to her, thoughts of what happened and what's to come.

It hasn't all been easy. Far from it.

She was in good spirits while giving an interview to a television news crew on Wednesday but the ensuing night was not pleasant and her thoughts turned to her injuries.

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With her spouse Lindsey Johns holding tight to her right hand, Hagmann recounted:  "Last night," she said she was thinking, "why me, why do I have to hurt like this?"

Her children, two of her own and three others she has "adopted" from a bad situation, only know she has had surgery and is in the hospital. She will share with them what happened when she, and they, are ready.

Any talk of insurance claims, lawyers and the like will come later, Hagmann and Johns said.

"There's a lot of stuff we have to wait for," Johns said. "We will get through this just fine."

Several stuffed animals lay at the end of her hospital bed including "Bob", also known as "Teddy from Hawaii", a stuffed bear Johns got from a pal in the island state.

Hagmann said there has been some talk of the recovery process, but it is still too early.

That process may hamper a planned trip she and a friend were to take to England in July. "It's just somewhere we wanted to go," she said. But, despite still wanting to go on the current timetable, rehab is going to be the deciding factor even if she could possibly go.

"I don't want to be a burden," she insisted.

Meanwhile, disbelief is her reaction at the response to her plight, some of it from strangers.

"It is unbelievable," she said. "I still can't believe the things people are saying and doing."

Comments calling her a hero and lauding her actions on Sunday morning are odd to her.

"Who is this person they are talking about," she said. "I didn't do it for attention. Anyone should do it."

She marvels at the help, from an offer of free prosthetics from a Lee County orthopedics company to checks and cash from complete strangers. Two gofundme.com sites have collected more than $30,000 and the family opened a Wells Fargo account in her name.

At her North Fort Myers home there have been ramps built in anticipation of her needs, Johns said.

"I never once for a second thought anything like this would happen," Hagmann said. "That an entire town or county would band together to help. This is emotional, but a good emotional."

She credited Johns, her spouse of two years, for helping through the first few days following the crash.

"She is an incredible person," she said, looking at Johns holding her hand. "You forget there are people who support you. Even if you don't see then, they are there. She is my strength when I am weak."

Johns boasted about Hagmann's strength: "She's gonna walk out of rehab, she's not going to stop, she'll be fine. Just because of who she is."

Hagmann has known Johns since their North Fort Myers High School days. She smiled at the thought and said she sort of had a crush on her spouse even then.

She added that Johns and a fellow North Fort Myers high student whom she considers her best friend are among a tight group of former teen pals.

"Facebook helps," Hagmann said. Proof of that, she said, came from one fellow Red Knight who sent her flowers when he heard online about the crash and said he always looked up to her.

Her father, Steven Berkowitz, said his daughter was intolerable of people being picked on in high school and was known for defending weaker students.

"I just don't like bullies," she laughed.

That attitude has been her guidepost and was what was at play when she stopped at the crash Sunday.

"I just can't see a need and walk away," she said.

Follow Michael Braun on Twitter: @MichaelBraunNP

Fund set up

The Danielle Hagmann Medical Fund has been set up by her family. Donations can be made at Wells Fargo branches in Southwest Florida.

There are also two gofundme.com pages  — one by her father and one by extended family  — have been started.

A benefit will also be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., May 7 at The Palace Roller Rink,1490 Brown Road, North Fort Myers, with all proceeds going to help Danielle Hagmann.