GILROY
– Rural letter carrier Mary Bermudez was able to talk to her
family Monday evening for the first time since July 7, when she was
critically injured in a wreck on U.S. Highway 101.
GILROY – Rural letter carrier Mary Bermudez was able to talk to her family Monday evening for the first time since July 7, when she was critically injured in a wreck on U.S. Highway 101.
The 58-year-old Gilroy resident can now breathe without the aid of a ventilator, which she was hooked to for the week-and-a-half following the high-speed rollover. Bermudez found she could speak once again when doctors removed the machine Monday evening.
She has since been upgraded from critical condition to fair, meaning that her vital signs are stable and within normal limits. She was moved from Stanford Hospital’s intensive care unit to a regular room Tuesday evening, according to daughter Maxine Bermudez, of San Jose.
A July 15 hospital report that her condition had been upgraded to fair was incorrect, the result of a miscommunication, according to Stanford spokesperson Helen Allrich.
The mother of three grown daughters is still “pretty heavily medicated,” her daughter said, but the renewal of verbal communication is still thrilling.
“It is absolutely wonderful news,” said Maxine Bermudez, a human-resources employee for the city of Sunnyvale. “We are so excited to have her off that (ventilator) and talking again. … The whole family is just ecstatic.”
The condition upgrade will also allow California Highway Patrol officers to interview Mary Bermudez about what caused her to lose control of her Jeep Cherokee and roll three times that Wednesday morning on 101, just south of the Monterey Street exit.
Bermudez was “in and out” of consciousness at the scene but managed to tell emergency workers that she lost control because another vehicle bumped hers from behind, according to investigating officer David Agredano. Three witnesses said they saw no such collision, but a dent on Jeep’s rear end could have come from it, Agredano reported. The accident remains under investigation.
Bermudez’s family members and fellow postal workers suspect she was the victim of a hit-and-run. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
Meanwhile, Bermudez is receiving visits from numerous family members, friends and co-workers while awaiting another surgery on her heavily damaged right arm.
“We’ve received lots of phone calls and lots of cards from those who are on her (mail) route,” Maxine said. “We just appreciate all of their prayers and get-well wishes.
“We are waiting to take her home and get her better.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the CHP at 848-2324 and postal inspector Judy McDermott at (415) 778-5900.
