Nearly two weeks after a horrific crash on Chicago's South Side that left 11-year-old Keeshuna Patterson critically injured, she and her family are struggling to piece their lives back together again.
"She got a fractured skull. 23 stitches all the way across," Keeshuna's mother Keeshun Hunt said Saturday.
Keeshuna was walking to get some candy across the street from her home near the intersection of West 80th Street and South Vincennes Avenue on Sept. 13 when the accident occurred.
Police said an SUV driven by 68-year-old William Dunlap, of Calumet Park, struck two cars, injuring six others before plowing into Keeshuna and pinning her to the porch of the candy store.
Dunlap was charged with one felony count of aggravated DUI causing an accident resulting in bodily harm, two misdemeanor counts of DUI, and one misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident.
Keeshuna was taken from the crash to Comer Children's Hospital in "very critical" condition. She has since been transferred to La Rabida Children’s Hospital, but remains in critical condition.
"She still is not talking. She's walking, but not on her own," Hunt said, revealing that she and her daughter now communicate through blinking and holding hands.
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"She squeezes my hand," Hunt said. "I say, 'You know who I am, squeeze my hand.' And she squeezes my hand."
Keeshuna is in fifth grade, her mother said, and is an honors student who loves reading, basketball and dancing. But she will now have to learn to walk and talk all over again, and Hunt fears her daughter will never be the same.
Hunt has not been home since the crash, sleeping in a chair at Keeshuna's side.
"I want her to wake up and see I'm here," she said. "I'm not going home until my baby goes home."
A GoFundMe account has been created to help Keeshuna's family pay for her medical bills and other expenses.
