Graduating BASW student Mackenzie Evans planned to spend her spring break in New York, spending time with her sister. Instead, she spent it in a hospital.
Last March, she and a childhood friend were making their way down Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood when a driver overcorrected a turn and jumped the sidewalk and slammed into Evans.
“The impact of being hit by a car, it was just crazy,” Evans, a junior at the time, said. “I look down and my shoes are busted, my legs or my ankles look busted. I'm like, ‘Oh my God. No way this is happening right now.’”
Emergency responders rushed her to UPMC Presbyterian hospital, where doctors confirmed that both of her ankles were broken and that she would need surgery and a metal implant. With her plans for spring break in tatters, she remembered the fear of not knowing if she’d ever walk again. Doctors reassured her that she would, but even then, doubt crept in. The recovery process ahead of her felt massive, and it would take three months before she could even stand on her own, she said.
But at that moment, lying in her hospital bed, the social work student wasn’t thinking about giving up.
“I knew there was no other option,” Evans said. “I had to finish school.” Read more in Pittwire or the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.