‘Robbed of her life’
Fam fights to sustain B’klyn architect slammed in hit-&-run
For the sister of a Brooklyn architect who was permanently disabled in a hit-and-run accident, life has become a “nightmare that won’t end” as she fights insurance companies and healthcare providers ready to give up on her sibling.
Mimi Silver Liebenberg, 37, suffered severe brain damage after she was mowed down while crossing Pacific St. and Buffalo Ave. in Crown Heights on Aug. 14.
Police sources said the driver, Clossie Spencer, was looking for a parking spot when he backed into Liebenberg, who was in the crosswalk.
Surveillance footage recovered from the nearby Kingsborough Houses show Spencer getting out of the car, looking at the seriously injured woman and getting back in before he callously drove off.
“I just don’t understand that,” Liebenberg’s sister, Creecy Richardson-Creef, told the Daily News.
Liebenberg was taken to Kings County Hospital immediately after the crash, but was eventually transferred to an Atlanta-based rehabilitation facility that specializes in brain injuries.
It was the second of four health care facilities Liebenberg’s family would work to get her into.
“Our mother, who’s 63 years old, has been with my sister for the last 5½ months in all these hospitals and traumatic brain injury facilities,” said Richardson-Creef, 35. “It’s taken a toll on my mom and her health, as well.”
Liebenberg can no longer speak, communicate or walk unassisted, and her short-term memory is almost gone, said her sister.
She is currently at a facility in Richmond, Va., but since doctors determined Liebenberg will not recover past this point, getting insurance to cover the in-patient treatment has become a full-time job for her family.
“They don’t think it’s medically necessary, that’s their excuse,” Richardson-Creef said of the insurance companies. “She’s treated as less than human.”
Liebenberg was in a coma for seven weeks after the crash. When she came out of a “vegetative state” at the end of September, she grew exasperated by the slow progress of her therapy, her sister said.
“She couldn’t control her arms and legs and had to be restrained so she wouldn’t hurt herself,” Richardson-Creef said. “In her mind, she thinks she’s speaking clearly, but what we hear is nonsense. She gets very frustrated.”
Liebenberg often forgets recent events and where she is.
“We have to tell her, again and again, she was run over by a car,” said
Richardson-Creef. “Every time, she’s shocked and horrified all over again.”
Liebenberg was divorced and living with a roommate before the crash. She was out looking for an apartment the day Spencer, 29, struck her.
She was working her “dream job” as an architect before she was injured.
“She went back to school and graduated,” said Richardson-Creef. “She loved her job and she was so good at it. She had finally gotten there and now she is just going to be somebody who has to be on Medicaid and get government benefits and be disabled.”
Liebenberg grew up in a small town in
North Carolina.
“She loved being in New York, said Richardson-Creef. “She loved the art and music and the energy. She was somebody who cared about people and defended people who were underrepresented and misunderstood ... now she can’t walk and she can’t brush her teeth by herself.”
Liebenberg is expected to live out the rest of her life in her current condition.
“It’s like she’s there, but she’s not,” her sister said. “She lost her dignity and independence and there’s nothing we can do to help her. She’s been robbed of her life.”
A 911 caller provided detectives with a picture of Spencer’s car, but it took months to track him down. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident involving an injury.
“I’m happy they’ve arrested him and I hope the DA will prosecute him to the fullest extent allowed by law because this has been the worst thing that’s ever happened to my family.”
Following an arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, he was held on a $20,000 bond or $10,000 cash bail.
“She didn’t do anything wrong, she was just crossing the street,” Richardson-Creef said. “I want her life to matter because it matters to me and to my kids and to my poor mom.”