By Laura Janota, Daily Herald Staff Writer
A ray of hope glimmers for Jim Sullivan even though the doctors say his brain-damaged sister will never fully recover from injuries suffered in an accident with a freight train.
While Loretta Conser may never eat again without spilling or even remember her brother’s visits five minutes after he leaves the DuPage County Convalescent Center, money is now available in case of a medical breakthrough that Sullivan believes someday will help his older sister.
Conser, who was hit by a freight train in 1987 after she drove past idling vehicles and activated warning gates onto the Chicago & North Western Ry. Tracks at Washington Street in Wheaton, has won $3.5 million in an out-of-court settlement with the railroad company.
“Now I can maybe get her hair done once every week. Now I can buy her some nice clothes,” said Sullivan, who was at his wheelchair-bound sister’s side daily for a year after the accident and spent nearly three years fighting for damages in the Cook County Circuit Court.
Conser’s attorney, Jerome G. McSherry of Chicago, called the out-of-court settlement, which guarantees the 46-year old woman $6,200 per month or up to $4.5 million if she lives another 35 years, a major victory since Conser was at least partially to blame for the accident.
Both McSherry and Sullivan agree, however, that mitigating circumstances, including track repair work that was taking place at the congested rail crossing, may have confused Conser.
C&NW officials declined Friday to comment on the settlement.
“There were some things that I thought were wrong,” Sullivan said. “That’s why I pursued some of the things that I did, and since then the conditions at those tracks have been corrected.”
Conser, who returned to her childhood home in Wheaton to live with her brother and his family about a year before the accident, lost use of her right arm, talks with a speech impediment and lacks much of her memory.
But while doctors predicted the worst, she came out of a coma after the accident and began to talk and move about in a limited fashion – feats the medical experts warned weren’t likely, Sullivan said.
While Conser doesn’t remember her grandchildren, her old friends or anything about the accident, there are patches of her memory that have held up.