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The road to recovery

Funds help college student struck upstate

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Friends, family and even strangers have helped to raise nearly $60,000 so far for Meghan Madden, a 20-year-old Wantagh woman who was struck by a drunk driver during a trip upstate earlier this month.

Madden, a 2012 Seaford High School graduate and an elementary education major at LIU Post, was visiting friends in Binghamton the first weekend in March. She was walking along the Court Street Bridge when a car veered off the road and hit her. Her right leg was surgically removed from the knee down.

“Her leg was crushed; there was really no way to save it,” said her brother, Sean, 25. “It was a traumatic experience for her.”

After being released from the hospital, Madden was sent to a rehabilitation center in Manhattan. It is unknown when she will be able to come home. She will eventually need a prosthetic leg, but first her wound needs to fully heal.

“She’s a 20-year-old girl,” her brother said. “She’s beautiful. There’s obviously a question of what she’s going to look like.”

He added that everyone in the family is trying to stay positive. Madden’s parents have spent most of their time by her side in the weeks since the accident.

A few days after it happened, Madden’s friends from Post set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the various expenses that have arisen, and will arise as she recovers.

“Many people have reached out asking what they can do to help,” Meghan’s Post friends, Brittany, Lexi, Jess, Dayna and Kara, wrote on the site. “Every donation matters and Meghan appreciates the love and support everyone is giving her. We have faith in our friend, she has a bright future ahead of her and she will overcome this challenge in life from all the love and optimism.”

The original fundraising goal was $5,000, but donations have far exceeded that. As of Monday, more than $59,200 had been committed to Madden. “We are shocked at how supportive people are being,” Sean said.

There will be medical expenses. The average below-the-knee prosthetic leg costs $40,000, according to Meghan’s brother, and typically needs to be replaced every two years, though insurance covers most of the cost. Alterations will also need to be done at her house, but what exactly those are won’t be known until she comes home and tries to resume her normal activities. If she ever drives again, she would need a vehicle with hand-controlled pedals.

‘There’s no book for this,” Sean said. “It’s going to be a long road. Things are going to come up. You just have to go with the flow.”

He said his sister is concerned about losing a full semester of college, and will probably have to take medical leave. She is a junior at Post and wants to be an elementary school teacher. Sean said the family has been in touch with all of her professors. “We don’t know when she’s going to be home and when she’s going to be ready to start doing class work,” he said.

The GoFundMe page has been filled with messages of support over the past few weeks, with friends wishing her a speedy recovery.

Sean said that some fundraisers could be planned for the future as the family gets a better idea of the real financial impact of the accident. Until then, they are taking it day by day, and are thankful that Meghan is alive and was not paralyzed.

To help out, visit www.gofundme.com/MeghanMadden.