Seattle mother, son critically injured by drunk driver showing slow but steady improvement
Feb 6, 2014, 4:57 PM | Updated: Feb 7, 2014, 8:51 am
The Seattle woman and her young son critically injured when a drunk driver plowed into their family as they crossed the street continue to show signs of improvement, but still face daunting recoveries, her husband Dan Schulte says in a new blog post.
Karina and Elias Schulte both suffered massive injuries when repeat drunken driver Mark Mullan, 51, crashed into them as they crossed a street in Seattle’s Wedgewood neighborhood last March. The crash killed Schulte’s parents Dennis and Judy, who had just moved to Seattle to be close to the family.
“My wife Karina has been at home for several months. She continues to build strength and regain daily living skills,” Schulte writes in the first update since September. “She’s walking, talking, and in general, doing many normal daily-life-kind-of things. She does not walk or talk like her previous self and her left side has some permanent damage. But she’s made incredible progress and outdone the doctors’ expectations in many ways.”
Schulte calls his wife “the strongest human being I know,” and says while her recovery is a “marathon,” he’s encouraged to see progress.
Elias, who was just 10-days-old at the time of the crash, is “developing fairly normally through much assistance from his therapists who visit him regularly,” Schulte writes.
The toddler continues to suffer vision problems caused by the trauma to his brain from the accident. But Schulte says he may just be “the happiest baby” on the block, if not the whole city.
Still, Schulte admits the youngster’s recovery is far from over. He says his son has another “pretty intense” surgery scheduled later this month to repair the membrane between his skull and brain, and patch together the bones of his skull.
“It’s really not a surgery we’re looking forward to. We’re just looking forward to it being over. It’s scary, but we know that he’ll be in the best hands at Seattle Children’s Hospital,” he writes.
Schulte has become an outspoken advocate for increased drunk driving penalties, testifying last year in the state Legislature and writing editorials. He says he is “just marching on and remaining as hopeful as possible for the future,” but that he has “seen some darkness,” and knows “the depths it can reach.”
Mullan was sentenced last November to 18 years in prison.
