GRAND JUNCTION — Sixteen-year-old Alyssa Rosati survived.

But she can’t come home yet.

Doctors at first didn’t think the Grand Junction teen would live after being struck by a car and pinned from the pelvis down against another vehicle during a Vail Pass whiteout on I-70 on March 31.

In addition to Alyssa, her mother, Tina Cordero-Rosati, and her 12-year-old sister Adriana were injured in the wreck on the icy road.

Only father Robert escaped injury.

Alyssa was injured the most severely. She fractured her pelvis in four places; suffered organ swelling; received fractures, tissue and muscle damage to her legs; and fractured her L-4 vertebrae in her lower back. She’s undergone multiple surgeries at St. Anthony’s Central Hospital in Denver, and, for now, she uses a wheelchair.

Surgeons removed Alyssa’s gall bladder, which had stopped functioning May 2.
On May 30, Alyssa left Denver and was flown by air ambulance to Florida to rehabilitate at her grandparents’ house in New Port Richey.

Maureen Maledon, the same flight-for-life nurse who escorted Alyssa the day of the accident from the Summit Medical Center to Denver’s St. Anthony’s Central, accompanied the teenager to Florida.

After the accident, Maledon went on vacation for a month.

“She was so excited to hear Alyssa had made it,” Cordero-Rosati said.
“It was amazing to meet the woman who took care of my daughter. She was able to fill in the pieces. I’m eternally grateful.”

Cordero-Rosati tends to Alyssa’s leg wounds daily in Florida.

“Psychologically, it’s difficult for her to look at her left leg. She wants to keep it wrapped 24/7, to not see it,” Cordero-Rosati said. Alyssa turned 16 in the hospital April 22.

Twelve-year-old Adriana returned to school and stayed with friends while her parents tended to Alyssa in Denver. Alyssa’s mother will return to her job part-time at the Palisade Marillac Clinic on July 1. Alyssa’s dad returned to Grand Junction to work his Fed Ex job in May and then left again on Mother’s Day, when his mother died in Michigan.

One of Alyssa’s grandparents will take over dressing Alyssa’s wounds while she continues to recuperate in Florida.

By the time Alyssa expects to return to Denver July 7 for follow-up care with a specialist, her mother and father hope to have a way for their daughter to come home and live with them. After meeting with occupational and physical therapists, the trauma team and the rehabilitation physician, it was clear their quad-level home would not work for Alyssa in a wheelchair.

“We either must put on a room with a small bedroom and bath, or get the house finished — we bought it as a fixer-upper — and put it on the market,” Cordero-Rosati said.

“She wants so much to come back. She went on vacation, and then her life stopped,” Cordero-Rosati said. “She just wants to see her friends, be in her room and sleep in her bed.”

And she wants a salt bagel from Main Street Bagels in Grand Junction.

Her favorite thing on a summer morning is to go to the bagel shop, order a latte and a bagel, and sit outside by the fountain, said her mother.

In Denver, when she finally developed an appetite, it was for a bagel, and the family went on a quest to find one similar to Main Street’s.

Now that Alyssa has left the hospital, Alyssa and her family want to tell the community thanks. Thanks for the cards, letters, wishes, gifts and prayers — even from people they didn’t know who read about their story in the Free Press.

Monday, Alyssa told the Free Press via her mom that the mail helped to brighten up her room and her mood during “really bad days.”

“Without all the positive thoughts and prayers I don’t think she’d be as far as she is,” Cordero-Rosati said. “She’s dealing with a lot of losses. We’re trying to focus on her progress.”

Cordero-Rosati said she has learned to appreciate every moment.

“No second is guaranteed. Life can change in an instant,” she said.

Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.