'Angels' reunited with injured girls

GARDNERVILLE - Two girls who were hit by a car on Highway 395 last week were able to thank the women who helped them afterward.

Sarah Thatcher and Sheena McConnell, both 15, were struck as they walked from Sarah's home in Kingslane Mobile Home Park to Raley's about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"Thank you guys for coming. It means a lot to us," Sheena told Kim Sagers and Chris Parks during a teary reunion at Sheena's Gardnerville home. "I don't know what we would have done without you there."

Sarah said she wanted to meet the people who helped her because so many didn't.

"The first person I saw, I saw this guy who was still in his car. He just sat there and he wouldn't help me," Sarah said.

Sagers and Parks said they didn't even think about it, although they did see others turn away from the girls.

"I was about nine cars back, and I couldn't see what was happening, but other cars in front of me were turning around. Then I saw someone lying under a car, and I jumped out without even throwing the car in (park). I didn't even think, I just jumped out," Sagers said.

Chris Parks, who also lives in Kingslane, said she was already in the turn lane to go home when she saw Sarah.

"I was just coming home from Rite Aid, and I was already in the center lane when I saw Sarah roll out. I didn't know what was happening, then I saw how she was in pain and I knew she must have been hit," Parks said.

Parks said she saw Sarah try to get up and fall back to the ground. It was later determined her leg was broken at the knee. Sarah had surgery to place screws in her knee, and she may need additional surgeries in the future.

Sheena's arm was broken near the shoulder.

However, when Sagers called her mother, Denny Welton, neither of them knew the girls were not injured more extensively.

"I just want to thank you, too, because I didn't know what to do, and it was easier for me to walk away from Sarah to go to Sheena, knowing somebody else who cared was there," Welton said. "It was the worst feeling I've had in my life when I came up around the car and saw her feet and recognized her."

Sheena said Kim helped her a lot before her mother got there.

"She came up and said, 'It's going to be OK' and calmed me down. It was a relief to see someone. She talked me through it," she said.

Sarah's mom, Rita Iseminger, added her thanks.

"It's important what you did, that you did help," she said.

Welton also thanked the paramedics for their fast response and for helping their daughters.

It will be a while before the girls, who have been best friends since the eighth grade, can go back to school. Sheena can't have a permanent cast on her arm, and therefore has to keep it still for at least a couple more weeks, and Sarah will have to wait at least three months to see if she has to have more surgery. In that case, she will be off it for six months.