New Orleans Attack Victim From Pittsburgh Area Has Long Recovery Ahead

CANONSBURG, PA — Money being raised on behalf of Jeremi Sensky, the Canonsburg man who was severely injured in the New Year's attack in New Orleans that left more than a dozen people dead.

A GoFundMe page was created by Heaven Sensky-Kirsch, Sensky's daughter, who was visiting New Orleans with her mother and father to celebrate the new year. Sensky-Kirsch and her mother had returned to their hotel while Sensky stayed out to have pizza with a friend when the attack occurred.

"He is so lucky to be alive," Sensky-Kirsch stated on the page. "And we are so grateful as many families here did not get the news we did."

Sensky, 51, was hit by the truck that plowed into people on a crowded Bourbon Street at around 3:15 a.m. The New Orleans coroner initially said 15 people were killed, but the FBI on Thursday corrected that number to 14. Dozens were hurt.

Sensky, who has been a quadriplegic since a 1999 car accident, suffered multiple injuries, Sensky-Kirsch wrote. "Dad underwent a 10+ hour surgery on two broken femurs in his legs and a bone sticking out of his shin," she said.

While Sensky survived the attack, the family's situation remains grim.

"Dad is currently in the trauma ICU with a long road to recovery ahead of him, and we are all stranded in New Orleans as we locate him a new wheelchair and provide physical care to him when it is time to travel," Sensky-Kirsch wrote.

The driver of the vehicle, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas, was killed in a gunfire exchange with police. His rented Ford pickup truck contained weapons, a potential IED and an ISIS flag.