The mother of a 33-year-old Lincoln woman who was critically injured in May while crossing A Street at Capitol Parkway has sued the driver who hit her.
Halley Hansen was left with a traumatic brain injury and bleeding on her brain and now is unable to live independently and is cognitively impaired, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court.
Omaha attorney Ronald J. Palagi, who represents Sharyn Hansen, Halley's mother and guardian, sued Louis Keester, seeking nearly $630,000 for her daughter's medical bills so far and more than $10.1 million, the estimated cost of future care.
On May 15, Halley Hansen was headed south in the crosswalk on A Street east of Capitol Parkway just after 1 p.m. when Keester turned left and hit her with his Toyota Venza, according to the Lincoln police accident report.Â
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Hansen was thrown to the ground, her head hitting the street.
When rescue workers got there, she was unresponsive and bleeding from her head and mouth. At a hospital, she needed a craniectomy to relieve pressure from swelling on her brain.
Keester, who was 86 then and is now 87, told an officer at the scene, "The first time I saw her was when I hit her."
He said he had a yellow arrow as he was turning east onto A Street from the southbound lanes of Capitol Parkway, the report said. When a gap appeared in traffic, he turned onto A Street.
Keester later pleaded guilty to failure to yield to a pedestrian and paid a $25 fine.
Palagi said Halley Hansen was hospitalized until June 1, when she was transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, still needing 24-hour care. On Aug. 6, she was moved to a post-acute rehabilitation center in Lincoln.
He said she is unable to make decisions and manage her own affairs and needs extreme medical rehabilitation and hospital treatment still, a result of Keester's negligence.
Keester hasn't yet responded to the lawsuit.