Hello everyone.
My mom, Connie Garcia, was involved in a terrible accident. A little before 7 pm on 3/22/2026, my mom was crossing the street right by her home in Covina, from what appears to be her starting a walk around the city to get some exercise. As she was safely and innocently crossing the street, she was struck by a vehicle. It appears the person who struck her ran a red light and was not paying attention, and my mom was hit at full speed and possibly dragged a number of feet before the vehicle stopped.
Thankfully, a police officer was already at the intersection and immediately responded.
As you can imagine, getting struck by a car at high speed results in some pretty intense injuries.
I arrived at the hospital about 15 minutes after the accident to learn the extent of her injuries:
A life-threatening tear in her aorta
Both ankles broken, one with bone showing
Fractured femur
Pelvis shattered and disconnected from spine
Skin on knees gone
Body full of road rash
A large gash from the front of her body to the back as if she was being split in half
A possible puncture in her lower intestine
This was not a simple tap of a car to my poor mom. This was a huge hit that took the human body to its limits.
The positive news: there was no significant damage to her head or neck.
The horrible news: the tear in my mom’s heart was so severe the doctors needed to act immediately on emergency surgery. A special cardiac team rushed to the hospital to determine if they had to open my mom up or go through her leg. Luckily, it was in an area that they were able to access through the leg with a cardiac catheter. We were told it was a very serious injury and if it was not fixed soon, then my mom might not make it.
My sister and I saw my mom and spoke to her a little bit. Although she was not very lucid from the pain medication, she was able to say a few words.
As our family moved to the cardiac waiting room, which my mom was the only patient who was there at the moment, is when we heard this over the speakers:
“CODE BLUE CARDIAC CATHETER LAB”
All of our hearts sank as we thought that was it for mom. The sprinting of the employees racing to my mom is something I’ll never forget.
By God's grace, my mom pulled through after 4 minutes of CPR. They then proceeded with the surgery and fixed the tear. That’s how close we were to losing mom.
Since then, mom has had surgery on both her ankles, the deep gashes, and soon she will have pelvis surgery.
She is stable as of now but still critical in the ICU. She’s fighting low blood pressure from the huge blood loss and weak kidney function. Thankfully, she was able to give some confirmation head nods to the nurses as they were worried about my mom's lack of response since the heart surgery.
We are not out of the woods yet. They still have her in critical status due to the amount of injuries and how much her vitals fluctuates.
Once she becomes stable, I will let people know when they can see her or send her any flowers or items.
They don’t expect her to be lucid for a few more days.
If everything goes perfectly, my mom will still have a massive road to recovery.
We ask that you please keep her in your prayers.
I am only making this to ease any burdens my mom may have once she is lucid.
I thank and appreciate everyone’s support. Feel free to reach out to me directly and I will try to get back to you with updates.