Dear Editor:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in the early morning Dec 4 response and rescue to the vehicular accident in Tamaqua involving my boyfriend Daniel Peletsky. Namely, our local fire and ambulance, EMS crews, Hopes Collision and Towing and Pennstarr Medivac, for the quick work they all did in the rescue. I would especially like to thank Hope's and my employer Bayada Nurses for holiday kindnesses and compassion extended to my family and I.
It means more than you know. In addition I want to express my heartfelt thanks to St. Luke trauma center, ICU and intermediate critical care in Bethlehem, along with the nurses and doctors who worked tirelessly to sustain Danny until he could sustain himself without life support. Finally I need to thank the staff at Good Shepherd Rehab hospital in Allentown for the absolutely miraculous work they did, as Danny emerged from a two week coma, could not walk, speak, eat/drink or think, and after just over a month there, has come home, able to walk and talk and is on his way recovering from the most severe type of brain injury possible.
He is a different person, confused, and fighting an incredible battle to regain the memory and mind that he has lost. His life, and that of our families, has been altered forever. But he is a fighter, and knows we love him dearly, and he will regain himself over time ... not necessarily in the same capacity as he once was, but to my son Nick and I who love and need him, just having him home again and alive is a wonderful miracle given the fact that we nearly lost him a few times throughout the whole ordeal.
My important message here, besides my thankfulness to those who played a part in saving him, is that I hope everyone remembers NEVER to get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence of alcohol. Life is fragile and so easily snuffed out, and so many people just don't realize that serious consequences can happen. No one thinks it will happen to them, but it does.
People like Danny will have their lives altered forever, or maybe won't make it through at all. Danny and I are both so grateful that no one else was injured in this accident. Please remember Danny, and others who are injured or killed because of their poor choice to drink and drive, or because someone else made that choice and hurt an innocent person.
Lastly I want to thank family, friends, co-workers, as well as those to whom Danny is just a faceless person they may have heard about, for their endless prayers and encouragement through our ordeal.
With respect and thanks,
Kathleen Quinn-Farber, Daniel Peletsky,
our families and friends
Tamaqua