Survivor of devastating car accident thanks rescuers and San Clemente community who rallied to help
Oct. 19--Nearly a year after a car crash turned her life upside down, Andrea Cooper is back on her feet, reliving a remarkable journey back and thanking a community that rallied behind her.
Her ordeal isn't over. But as the Oct. 26 anniversary of the crash approaches, a Facebook page called "What do you Think San Clemente" has given the 44-year-old San Clemente resident firm reason to believe in the power and compassion of community.
She was turning left at Michelson and MacArthur on a green arrow, about to pick up a friend at John Wayne Airport, she said, when a car being chased by police ran a red light and smacked her car. Trapped inside, she was pried out by Orange County Fire Authority personnel, only to learn at the hospital that she would be incapacitated -- helpless -- for months.
In a Nov. 1 Facebook post from her couch, she described her ordeal. She told anyone reading how she lived on her own and would greatly appreciate any help walking her dogs, grocery shopping, cooking, bathing, getting to the doctor, anything.
The response snowballed, so big that one responder, Linda Ramos, took charge and organized volunteer shifts through an app called Helping Hands. Over the next two months, some 170 strangers would visit Cooper's home to help, one way or another.
Some made a single visit, others more often, on a schedule. One man who wasn't scheduled arrived at her door, handed her $400 and left.
"I'm like so overwhelmed," Cooper said this week while making plans to meet her firefighter and paramedic first responders. "When I think about meeting the firefighters, I want to cry. I can't believe how amazing everyone has been. And the head volunteer, Linda, she and I have become best friends. I don't have family, so it's hard for me to comprehend that this amazing town loves me so much."
"You are very blessed to have such great friends ... and strangers," OCFA Capt. Ian Dawes told her. He was the paramedic who helped her out of the car.
"They had to pry open the driver door I believe with the Jaws of Life to get me out," Cooper said. "They immediately put me in the ambulance and started just started shooting Fentanyl up my nose -- pain medicine. My arm was so badly broken that they had to put it in an inflatable blow-up cast."
Dawes said it was gratifying to reunite Monday with a patient and learn of a positive outcome. "It's does my soul good, because usually we drop them off in the hospital and we never know the outcome," he said. "This is really heartwarming."
The reunion included Capt. Tim O'Hare, who was on the Oct. 26 call, and Raad Ghantous, a San Clemente resident who founded the Facebook page "What do you think San Clemente" that united behind Cooper.
Cooper described a rollercoaster sequence that followed the accident. She had just accepted a new job as a sales manager but couldn't work. While Facebook Samaritans were tending to her needs and doing fundraising, her bills soared. She couldn't keep up. In January she lost the home she'd been renting. She moved in with a volunteer family for a month.
"I went bankrupt," she said. "I lost everything. Now I am on state insurance."
Cleared to return to work in May, Cooper said suffered a kidney setback. She continues to undergo therapy.
The other driver's insurance only paid $8,600, she said. She sold her possessions. When she was able to arrange a new apartment, "I moved in with a TV and my clothes," she said. "They worked with me on payments, because I'm still behind."
Cooper said she is upbeat, able to drive and helping to make ends meet by driving temporarily for Uber. Facebook readers have stepped forward again. "They all call me for private rides to get to the airport, just to get money in my pocket," she said.
Ghantous said he is amazed how Cooper's case captivated a community, "became sort of an anchoring point for people on that page," he said.
Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127
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