By Da Lin<\/p>\n
Nearly four months after a horrific crash that killed three people in East Oakland, Deshawn Murphy Sr. remains hospitalized, unable to walk, eat or speak as he works to recover from severe injuries.<\/p>\n
Murphy, 52, was walking to a corner store around 11:15 p.m. on May 16 near International Boulevard and 85th Avenue when a truck slammed onto the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
Police say the crash killed three people and injured three others, including Murphy. Investigators said the driver fled the scene before witnesses chased down and detained the 17-year-old driver.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said the crash did not appear to be intentional. Police have not publicly said what caused it.<\/p>\n
Before the crash, Murphy was working at UC Berkeley. His partner, Ora Meacham, described him as an active, social person who could make friends almost anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverywhere he goes, he makes friends. He\u2019s just a very kind, loving person,\u201d Meacham said.<\/p>\n
Now, Murphy faces a dramatically different life.<\/p>\n
Doctors amputated his right leg after he was dragged in the crash. He also suffered severe brain injuries and other traumatic injuries.<\/p>\n
Murphy was initially treated at Highland Hospital. He is now at Kentfield Hospital, where he is receiving neurological treatment, physical therapy, and speech therapy.<\/p>\n
Gia Smith, an acute care nurse practitioner at Kentfield Hospital, said Murphy has made progress since arriving at the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a helmet for neuroprotection. He also has a PEG tube [because] he\u2019s not able to eat. And he\u2019s making strides with his swallowing. He was pretty much comatose when he came. Now he\u2019s alert, opening his eyes,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
For Meacham, those seemingly small changes have become major milestones.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe opens his eyes now. He was not doing that before,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cHe follows commands. He tries to say hi. And that\u2019s a first. So he\u2019s trying to talk.\u00a0 He\u2019s making audible sounds.\u00a0 And that was something that was not possible a month ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
But doctors have warned that Murphy\u2019s recovery will be a long one, measured in months and years rather than weeks.<\/p>\n
Meacham has spent so much time at the hospital caring for Murphy that she lost her job. She said the emotional toll has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like it\u2019s happened. But every time I go home and he\u2019s not there, it\u2019s just heart-wrenching,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are good days, bad days. I cry pretty much every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, Meacham said she remains hopeful and is focused on Murphy\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a new life, a different life for us. But it\u2019s going to be good because he is surrounded by so much love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Meacham credits Murphy\u2019s improvements to what she calls a village of support \u2014 his family and the medical staff caring for him at Kentfield Hospital.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old driver is expected to face vehicular manslaughter charges in juvenile court. Because the driver is a minor, the district attorney\u2019s office said it cannot comment on the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Da Lin Nearly four months after a horrific crash that killed three people in East Oakland, Deshawn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-461511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}