Perhaps you remember my diary "The Jerry Situation" about my uncle and his mental health/living situation problems. It's only gotten worse. Details below the fold.
On August 31st, in the early morning, my uncle Jerry was rushed to Providence Holy Cross Hospital in the San Fernando Valley, California community of Mission Hills, to their trauma center. First responders extricated him from the twisted remains of his adult trike. A hit-and-run driver had broadsided his trike and bailed.
He had a broken collarbone, broken scapula, several broken ribs, including one that had punctured his lung, and a cracked pelvis. He had no memory of the incident, but was alert and awake and talking. He was in horrible pain, had no clue as to why he was in pain, and had extreme difficulty breathing. In order to allow his ribs and his lung to begin healing, he was sedated and put on a respirator. He has been in the hospital ever since.
On September 31st, another guy named Jerry, Governor Jerry Brown of my great state of California, vetoed the last three of a group of four bills that would have increased the penalties for hit-and-run. He gave as his reasons that the bills were "unnecessary" and that penalties were adequate the way they were. But the thing is, hit-and-run has reached epidemic proportions here in Los Angeles, and runs rampant in Southern California.
Is this a NoCal vs. SoCal thing? Is Governor Brown blind? Or is he just sheltered from the reality that people face here in Southern California every single day: that vulnerable populations like pedestrians and cyclists and the wheelchair bound take their lives in their hands just trying to get from place to place. And even motorists are not immune: hit-and-run accidents affect motorists too.
A 69-year-old man cannot heal as easily from an accident like this as an able bodied individual can. It is likely he will never be the same. He might not even recover: seniors who are hospitalized for long durations for a traumatic injury often acquire secondary infections that take lives. Complications will always be a threat. All I can say is that I am disappointed in Governor Brown's decision to veto the four bills to enhance penalties for hit-and-run. I wish Jerry could meet Jerry and see what happens when a hit-and-run driver irreparably alters someone's life.