NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 99-year-old woman returned to her Upper West Side apartment on Wednesday, more than a month after she was injured in a multi-vehicle accident on the Van Wyck Expressway.
"I am the luckiest person in the world," said Mimi Chaplin. "I have always been lucky, but this is the epitome."
Chaplin recalled what happened on the night of Jan. 28 as she headed home on the expressway from her twice-weekly poker game on Long Island.
"I was coming from the poker game, relaxing in the Access-A-Ride bus, and I thought it was an explosion," she said.
With injuries that included broken bones and a concussion, Chaplin spent six nights at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and four weeks in rehab.
Chaplin lived alone and walked to the grocery store on her own. Now, using a wheelchair, she's lost some of the agency she once enjoyed, but she hopes to graduate to a walker.
"I'm so vital and so with it," she added. "In one minute, it's all taken away from me? I couldn't believe it."
