HANSON, Mass. — 20 years after tragedy struck at her workplace, a Hanson woman that lost friends, her husband, and her livelihood is still on her feet helping others.
Jeanine Adams, 66, started working at the Brockton Hospital in 1977 as a student. Four years later, she was moved to the radiation unit as the manager for a therapist.
She worked in that unit until October 15th, 2007.
“The next thing I remember... Hearing people and saying, ‘What went on?’ They said I was in an accident, and I said, ‘I was at work!’
A senior citizen barreled through the front door of her unit, killing the doctor she worked for and the unit secretary.
The car reportedly collided with the front desk where Adams was working during the crash.
“I was only visible by my hair,” she said, telling Boston 25 Tuesday she was buried under debris and pressed against the wall. “My femur was broken up by the hip, and I guess it was in 18 different fragments.”
She also suffered an orbital fracture, a broken pelvis, stitches around her eye, and three lost teeth.
Her husband, Charles, came to visit her as she was being treated in a bed at the Brockton Hospital.
The next day he visited, nurses noticed something was wrong.
“They said he was like a deer in the headlights, like a person who wasn’t there,” she remembered.
Her husband had suffered a spontaneous brain hemorrhage, and spent nine weeks in a Boston hospital.
The two arrived home in Hanson around the same time, and both needed health aids to care for them.
Adams added, “I ended up having to go upstairs when he came home because he needed the hospital bed.”
After roughly a year of intense physical therapy, she was able to walk again on her own. However, her husband died from health complications just two years later.
Adams said she fell into a depression, explaining, “I was just content staying in the house, not going anywhere.”
She was unable to work and unable to do any activities she previously enjoyed.
But, she decided to sign up for a swim partnership program at the Hanover YMCA. A volunteer helped her exercise and swim in the pool. One year later, she decided to become a volunteer to help others.
Over the last decade, she’s stepped up and become a leader in several South Shore non-profit organizations and foundations, including the Hanson Food Pantry, 4-H, and many others.
She is also heavily involved in initiatives to help animals in need.
Her days are now packed with activities and ways to help others in her community. She also helps care for her grandson who was born in 2015.
“Everybody says, ‘How did you do it?,” she remembered. “It was like, ‘What choice do you have?’”
She finished, “I just tried to find some reason I’m still contributing to the world.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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