As we try to understand this terror attack, the family of a man in a wheelchair who survived being struck by the suspect’s car, speaks to WDSU investigative reporter Aubry Killion.
Jeremi Sensky’s legs are shattered and he had no idea what he was going to do.
“He had a bone sticking out of his leg,” his daughter, Heaven Lee Sensky Kirsch, said.
During the chaos of the attack, Sensky was struck by the speeding truck on Bourbon Street, breaking both legs and throwing him from his wheelchair.
Sensky and his family were visiting from Pennsylvania.
“We couldn’t find him for a few hours,” Kirsch said. “So we are all so grateful he’s alive. We just kept crying, and in the moment, we wished we were with him. In the moment, when my dad woke up, he kept crying. He was glad his friends weren’t with him. We would have died trying to get him out of there.”
Sensky’s wheelchair was his lifeline.
He’s depended on it since a 1999 accident left him paralyzed. His daughter says it may have saved his life.
“I do. I am telling myself that my dad’s heavy wheelchair slowed down that heavy truck for a lot of people,” Kirsch said. “His head was five feet from the wheel. Had he not been hit, he would have been shot because he can’t get out of the chair.”
To return to some sense of normalcy, he would need care from University Medical Center and a new chair to begin the recovery process.
United Way helped source the exact wheelchair needed — in just 24 hours.
‘’My parents are so reluctant to accept help because my dad just kept saying he is alive and other people aren’t; people lost their children,” Kirsch said.
Mark Raymond Jr. is with the Split Second Foundation. He’s also in a wheelchair and wanted to make sure this family was taken care of.
“I think the focus always needs to be on the families,” Raymond said. “How we as a community, as a country help them on that path to recovery. Beyond the physical injuries, the mental component moving forward is going to be a costly experience.”
“We made the decision to talk; we were getting so many messages from people wondering if he was alive, people that were disabled haunted by those images. I just want people to know he’s going to be OK and he’s going to keep on keeping on,” Kirsch said.
The family has set up an account online if you would like to help offset medical expenses.
READ MORE:Paralyzed man gets new wheelchair after deadly Bourbon Street attack
