By JOSEPH KELLARD
Parents buoyed by community support
Neil Strandberg said his prayer was answered.
When his wife, Michele, called work and frantically told him their 12-year-old son, Zach, had been hit by a car, Strandberg prayed on his drive to the accident scene at Brower Avenue and Oceanside Parkway. "You now know a fact: Your son has been hit by a car," he said, explaining his thought process during that urgent block of time at around 2 p.m. on Dec. 28. "You say a pray that it's as least life-threatening as possible."
Zach survived, but sustained head and abdominal trauma with deep contusions. He was transported by a Nassau County police helicopter to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. Two days later the Oceanside boy was discharged, and his parents said he was healing well at home last week.
"It was pretty scary what he looked like," Neil recalled about seeing Zach - the third oldest of the Strandbergs' five children - when he arrived at the scene. "They were putting him on a stretcher, and you saw this gash above his eye and the scrapes on his stomach."
The Strandbergs had only good things to say about the paramedic who was in charge at the scene. As he treated their son, the Nassau County EMT communicated with the helicopter pilot - who set the craft down in the parking lot of the nearby Oceanside Jewish Center - cut Zach's clothes off, started an I.V. and fitted him with a neck brace, all the while keeping the boy calm with reassuring words.
"Another paramedic wanted to move him," said Michele, the first family member on the scene while her stepson lay in the gutter, "but the main paramedic said, 'No one is moving him anywhere.' He was fantastic."
It was a Friday, and Michele was at home when she got a call from Zach's friend, Alex, whom Zach was walking with when he tried to cross the street at the Brower-Oceanside Parkway intersection and Mallory Feldman, an Oceanside resident driving a 2004 Jeep south on Brower, hit the boy, according to 4th Precinct detectives.
"Apparently he ran out into the street, possibly without looking carefully - crossing the street against the traffic light," 4th Precinct Detective Sgt. William Carey said, reading from a police report. " ... The boy just fell to the ground, so it doesn't even look like she was traveling that fast if all he did was fall."
The Herald was unable to contact Feldman, but Carey said she told police that the boy ran in front of her vehicle. The police checked Feldman for alcohol and performed a brake test on her Jeep, and "everything was negative," Carey said. Feldman was not cited for any violations.
The incident happened too fast for Zach or Alex to recall any details, Michele said. "I think there was a bus that kind of blocked both the driver's view and Zach's view of the other lanes," she said. "... [Zach] just said that he walked around the bus. So it was kind of a surprise for him and the driver."
When Michele arrived at the scene, paramedics were already treating her stepson, and at the medical center, where Zach underwent a CAT scan, he received several stitches above one eye and was treated for a minor lung contusion and other scrapes and bruises. "We're definitely so happy and thankful that he doesn't have any broken bones, he's walking, he's home and he's alive," Michele said.
One thing the Strandbergs didn't pray for but nevertheless received was an outpouring of support from Zach's friends, teachers, advisors, coaches and others in the Oceanside community. "There's a lot of people out there that showed a lot of concern," Neil said.
Bob Fenter, Zach's principal at Oceanside Middle School, called the Strandbergs on Jan. 2, the day school reopened after the holiday recess, to reassure them that regardless of how much school their son had to miss, his teachers would send assignments and textbooks home. "We did what we could to provide a supportive network for the Strandbergs, and I think they were very pleased to hear from us," Fenter said. "But most importantly, Zach is going to have a swift recovery and we're going to be able to see him again next week."
Scott Fiata, president of the Oceanside National Little League, sent a basket of Blockbuster movies, popcorn, candy and other goodies to Zach at home, and by way of e-mail the coach has kept the boy's teammates updated on his status. "Zach is a great, happy kid and a great teammate," said Fiata, who coached him in a Little League tournament last summer.
Neil Strandberg called such thoughtful gestures "special," and said that they had made Zach and his family feel better during his convalescence. "... It's such a great feeling when you get support like that," he said.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
