SUBWAY MOM ‘MAY NOT WAKE’
The woman who underwent brain surgery over the weekend after plunging down a flight of subway stairs during an attempted mugging of her and her son is still unconscious — and doctors fear she may never wake up, her heartbroken family said.
The grim update on 58-year-old Than Htwe’s condition, which was announced Tuesday by her family, came as police are still searching for the brute who left her on the brink of death.
“The doctors told us that the trauma to her head was so severe that she won’t be able to wake up,” the son, Kyaw Zaw Hein, and her husband, Myint Shein, said on a newly created GoFundMe page.
“Eventually all her organs will shut down. We are now just waiting and worrying about what happens next,” the family said.
Hein, 22, was with his mother on their way to her doctor’s office when they were attacked from behind in the Q train station at Broadway and Canal Street at about 9:40 a.m. Saturday, according to police.
The two were walking up the stairs at the station when the attacker grabbed Hein’s bookbag, causing him to fall backward, authorities said.
As Hein fell down the stairs, he reached for his mother, who plunged down the steps with him, police said.
Htwe’s head struck the ground and she was left bloodied as the suspect fled back into the subway station.
A witness to the senseless attack had told The Post Hein consoled his badly injured mom as he pleaded for assistance.
“I saw the [son] holding the lady’s hand and he was screaming for help,” Carlos Lopez, a coffeestand worker, recalled.
“There was a lot of blood coming out of her head,” said Lopez, who flagged down nearby officers.
Later Saturday night, the mom underwent brain surgery at Bellevue Hospital.
In a heartbreaking photo posted to the GoFundMe page, Htwe is seen intubated in a hospital bed as her relatives look on.
She is described by her family as a “kindhearted and respectful” woman who moved from Myanmar to America with her husband to provide a better life for their only child.
“All of us are heartbroken and shocked by how the events have turned out,” the Brooklyn family said in the GoFundMe post.
Hein said, “I just want to tell everyone who’s reading this, to always cherish the moments you have with your mother.
“Tell her, ‘I love you’ or give her a hug and kiss because you never know what will happen.”
By Tuesday night, the fundraising page had surpassed its $10,000 goal, raising more than $14,000 in less than a day.
“We ask that you help us in this time of need. For a family who have nothing. Who moved across the world to try and make a better life,” the family said in their post.
Saturday’s attack came after crime in the subway system dropped as the city added 125 more cops to the morning and evening rush hours.
A total of 111 major felonies occurred in the subways in June — down from 168 the previous month, according to NYPD data.
Mayor de Blasio announced the increased enforcement on May 17 — and, according to data obtained by The Post, crime in the subway system began to taper off about a week later.