She’s a natural with animals, owns a horse named Ice and was studying to become a veterinarian.
But since Nov. 24, Anna Vinokurova, the middle of three children who emigrated from Russia 10 years ago, has been on a respirator at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, fighting for her life.
About 7:30 a.m. Nov. 2, a dark and rainy morning, she was walking in a marked crosswalk on 68th Avenue West in front of Edmonds Community College when she was struck by a black Honda driven by 22-year-old Fernando Gonzalez Lopez of Lynnwood.
The impact threw her about 75-feet and scattered her school books and papers.
Six weeks later, Vinokurova, who turned 19 the day after the collision, remains in serious condition at the hospital and Lopez, who is in the United States illegally, sits in a federal detention facility in SeaTac awaiting a decision by a federal immigration judge about his future.
Vinokurova’s boyfriend, Ryan O’Neill, also 19, is at the hospital every day after he gets off work from Arby’s restaurant on Highway 99 and 205th Street Northeast.
“I used to close the restaurant but I’ve been working day shift so I can come to the hospital,” he said.
The two had recently moved into a rental house about 50 yards from the college.
On Nov. 24, O’Neill crossed 68th Avenue West using the same crosswalk that Anna had used only three hours earlier. He had no idea anything was amiss, and learned of the accident after getting out of class.
The two met on a camping trip in 2005 and started dating shortly thereafter. Coping with the aftermath of Anna’s accident has been difficult for O’Neill, though he gets help from his mother, who is a nurse, and from friends.
“She was such a free-spirited person, so independent, it’s crazy,” O’Neill said. “And she’s gorgeous. It’s been a struggle sleeping, for sure — and eating.”
Anna’s sister, Victoria Vinokurova, 21, took a break from her own studies in computer-assisted design to help Tatiana Vinokurova, her mother, cope with her loss.
“She’s at the hospital almost every day, it’s very hard,” said Victoria Vinokurova, whose youngest sister, Eugena, 17, lives with her mother at their home in Snohomish.
Victoria and Anna rode horses together growing up but Anna stopped riding to go to school, her older sister said..
Victoria described her sister as very outgoing and a person who makes friends easily.
“She’s very energetic, very smart, very passionate,” she said. “She sets her mind on something and she’ll accomplish it.”
Anna, a 2005 graduate of Scriber Lake High School, has been on a ventilator and feeding tube since the accident, which broke both of her legs and the vertebrae of the upper spine. Her spinal cord was not damaged, O’Neill said.
“Right now, she hasn’t made a whole lot of purposeful movement,” O’Neill said. “It’s been more reflexes. Her right side’s moving a little more than her left side.”
Lopez, who was taken into custody by federal Immigration and Naturalization Service agents shortly after his apprehension, has agreed to federal authorities’ contentions that he knowingly possessed a counterfeit alien registration card and that he failed to register with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service when he entered the country, said Lorie Dankers, immigration and customs enforcement spokeswoman in Seattle.
The biggest need now for the Vinokurova family, Victoria said, is financial. Lopez had no automobile insurance.
A fund to help with Anna Vinokurova’s medical expenses has been set up at Washington Mutual Bank and contributions may be left at any branch office. Additionally, EdCC students have been raising money on her behalf.
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