Chicago Student's Life Has 'Done A Somersault' Since Traumatic Injury

CHICAGO — A 22-year-old Columbia College student who was weeks from graduating now faces an uncertain future after she was critically injured when chunks of concrete — some, her attorney said, were as large as couch cushions — began falling from a Chicago building and struck her in the head.

Annie Shea Wheeler said Monday she faces a long road to recovery after she has undergone two surgeries to address the injuries she sustained on April 6. Wheeler sustained a fractured skull when she was struck by the concrete in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood.

In her first public comments since the incident, Wheeler said she was on her daily walk home when she was struck by the concrete, which fell from a building at 1227 N. Milwaukee Ave. Her attorney said the building had “improperly and inadequately constructed” scaffolding surrounding it.

Attorney Bruno Marasso, a partner at Romanucci & Blandin, said that concrete had fallen from the second floor of the building when it struck Wheeler in the head as she walked on the sidewalk next to the building. Marasso said that as recently as March 21, the Chicago Department of Buildings had told the owner of the property to hire an engineer to make the necessary repairs to the crumbling façade of the building.

Wheeler said Monday she was making her daily walk from her Blue Line stop when she was struck. While much of the incident remains “blacked out” to the Michigan native, she remembers waking up to her roommate and strangers who came to her assistance after she was struck in the head by the falling concrete.

She characterizes the past two weeks as being “completely uprooting” and emotionally taxing, saying the incident has left her vulnerable and unable to finish her degree in fine arts due to the injuries she sustained.

“It feels like my whole life did a somersault,” Wheeler said in a Zoom news conference from her hospital room, where she was scheduled to be discharged later in the day. "I had a lot going for me and I still do, but this is extremely unfortunate."

She added: “I’m feeling very, I want to say defeated, but I’m not a defeated person, but it has defeated me, it has defeated my goals, and it has defeated my whole timeline for the next year.”

The incident, Wheeler said, will force her to return home to Michigan and leave her partner and the best living situation she has ever known. She said she has clear memories of waking up in the hospital, but the fact she can’t remember what put her there is comforting because she would rather not relive the moments that caused her injuries.

Even though Wheeler said her physical condition has improved since April 6, her doctors have said that she faces a long trajectory of mental health and sensory issues. She said she will have to re-train her body how to do basic motor functions, such as writing and reading, which she has struggled to do over the past two weeks. She said her recovery thus far has been "slow and tedious." She said her doctors have expressed concern over some spinal fluid leakage, and she will have to watch out for depression and developmental and transitional issues.

Marasso said that his law firm is continuing to evaluate who will be held responsible for what happened to Wheeler. In addition to the fractured skull, Wheeler developed a brain bleed and was on a ventilator for a period of time before she went through a second surgery to address the spinal fluid leakage. She is still dealing with the effects of a concussion, which Marasso said will likely develop into post-concussion syndrome at some point.

Marasso said his law firm has filed lawsuits against both the property owner and against Chicago Scaffolding, Inc., the company that constructed the canopy that surrounded the building. Marasso said the lawsuits seek an amount that will cover his client’s medical expenses plus pain and suffering, both physical and emotional, to protect her future. The lawsuits will also seek monetary amounts to cover lost wages that she will lose as she continues to recover.

In Cook County, Marasso said attorneys can claim damages in excess of the jurisdictional limit to cover what he said, "the reckless, reckless business owners (owe) to make up to Annie what they did." The law firm is, however, barred by rule from seeking a specific monetary amount and can only plead for an amount of $50,000, Marasso said in an email to Patch on Monday afternoon.

He said a specific amount will be determined once the law office has a clearer picture of her permanent challenges and limitations.

At the time, Marasso said that even though the scaffolding was in place near the intersection of Division, Ashland, and Milwaukee, very few people knew that concrete had been falling for weeks. He said that most people did not know why the scaffolding had been put in place, which made people walking in the area — as Wheeler did on that day — unaware of the dangers.

Now, two weeks later, Wheeler remains uncertain how long she will be dealing with the events of that life-altering day.

Wheeler said that she had already started the process of lining up residencies in graphic design that will now most likely need to be put on hold while she continues to recover. Wheeler, who had been working on campus, said she had plans to line up her first "big-girl job," which she said would help pay her bills, before the moments of the afternoon of April 6 changed everything.

“This part of my life is monumental, and I don’t really know where to go from here, honestly,” Wheeler said, holding back tears. “I know I’ll find my footing again, but it’s really, really sad.”