GA EMT Survives Head-On Collision, Community Steps Up To Help

BARROW COUNTY, GA — Magali Bruneau works as an EMT for Barrow County Emergency Services. She selflessly helps people day after day, but after a near-death accident that left her with massive injuries and in a wheelchair, her mother-in-law says she’s now the one who needs help.

“Through COVID she worked in the emergency room and helped every person who came in sick. She did it for two solid years. Triaging everyone and then she rode the ambulance and has been right there on the front lines all the time, never hesitated, helping people, and she really needs help now,” her mother-in-law Barbara Mock told Patch.

Bruneau, lovingly known as Mags, was involved in a head-on collision with a wrong-way driver April 13, while driving home on State Route 11. The wife and mother of a three-year-old girl suffered massive injuries, including a brain bleed, collapsed lung, a cracked sternum, broken back, badly broken left hand, and both of her feet were crushed, Mock said.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help with medical expenses that far exceed insurance coverage, Mock said. As of Sunday evening, a little over $31,000 of the $50,000 goal had been raised.

The community has also stepped up to host a golf tournament Monday for Bruneau at Providence Club, 656 Providence Club Drive. All proceeds will go to her. Registration starts at 8 a.m. and shotgun begins at 9 a.m. There are different sponsorship packages available ranging from $150 to $2,500. For more information contact Melissa Phillips at (770) 633-1937. Register here.

The road to recovery will be a long one, Mock said, adding that Bruneau has already had surgery on her back and hand.

“She’ll be in a wheelchair for at least a year,” Mock said. “She’s very emotionally traumatized.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, prices for things like lumbar have skyrocketed, Mock said. Her son had to build a 27-feet-long ramp with a landing just to get Bruneau in the front door. The lumber alone was $2,000.

They ripped out their tub and put in a shower floor. They need to build a new bathroom that’s wheelchair accessible and renovate the first-floor bedroom.

“We're trying to help them pay their medical bills,” Mock said. “She lost her vehicle. She lost her job. She's lost her life as she knew it.”

Bruneau has been in a hospital bed in the family’s living room since the accident two months ago. Friends, family, and even neighbors have helped with meals, home projects, and donations, Mock said.

"The people who have stepped up to help have been phenomenal," she said. "Everyone has pulled together to help her. It's a truly inspiring story of community."