The surgical assistant who was maimed on the sidewalk outside her job at a lower Manhattan hospital last year had her day in court Wednesday as the drugged-up hit-and-run driver who struck her was shipped off to prison.
Heather Hensl, 38, read a moving statement as crazed driver Tiffany Murdaugh, 35, was slapped with a two-to-six-year sentence following her guilty plea for a crime she almost got away with, the victim said. On April 13, 2015, Murdaugh, driving a Dodge Challenger, jumped the curve and drove about half a block, mowing down Hensl and narrowly missing others at William and Beekman Sts.
Hensl, a physician's assistant for orthopedic surgery and mother of two young kids, said that while going through the hard recovery for her painful and debilitating leg injury, she was forced to battle the police department to take her case seriously.
"I had the added task of pursuing justice for myself. I was told early on by the NYPD that we probably would never find this hit-and-run offender," she said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
"I persisted to call and email daily — they knew the car," Hensl added. "They threatened to close the case at one point and the stress and mental anguish was unbearable."
An arrest was finally made more than a month later and charges were brought.
Murdaugh pleaded guilty to assault and reckless endangerment for the episode, which happened around 8 a.m. as children piled into the Spruce Street School steps away.
Hensl recounted how hospital colleagues rushed to her side after the crash. She had managed to call them after good Samaritans gathered her belongings.
But the medical workers’ reaction only caused more anxiety.
"The look on their faces made me fearful," she said, adding that there was "muscle exposed extending down to my skull bone."
Hensel — who suffered a broken knee, a broken tibia in two places and a head wound — said she'll be dealing with the effects of the crime for life.
The victim also described how simple tasks on crutches were impossible for months.
She could not take care of her kids and her husband had to help her get into and out of a shower chair.
Murdaugh, of Philadelphia, was crying throughout the proceeding and offered her apologies to the victim.
"I am truly sorry for the injuries that occurred," she said weeping. "I wish it were me and not them."
Justice Gregory Carro suggested Murdaugh's punishment fits her egregious conduct.
"Although it may not have been intentional for you to drive up on the sidewalk, it certainly was intentional for you to take drugs and get behind the wheel of a car," he said.
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