SAN ANTONIO – A Somerset teenager who suffered multiple injuries in a fatal head-on crash blamed on a drunken driver, said she doesn't know how she survived.
Andrea Gamez has been in the hospital since the Jan. 26 crash on Interstate 35 near Kinney Road in southwest Bexar County.
"I have really, really bad pains in my legs and in my arm, and I'm missing my teeth," Gamez said in an interview from her hospital.
Gamez suffered multiple broken bones. Bandaged, bruised and hardly able to move, the road to recovery has been tough. But love and support has made it easier.
"My boyfriend never left my side. He slept with me every day," she said.
Gamez said she doesn't remember much about the crash.
"When she hit me, I was in shock and I didn't know if it was real. I thought it was fake. I thought I just rear-ended somebody, so I was going to try to reverse and then I guessed I passed out and that's when I remember them trying to claw me out," Gamez said. "After I've seen videos of the crash and how the car looks, I don't know how I did it. I don't know how I survived."
Gamez is hopeful people will think twice before getting behind the wheel after a night of drinking.
"I would never want to do this. I would never wish this on anybody else," she said. "And I want people to be careful because I don't want nobody going through what I'm going through right now."
The driver of the other car, Heidi Ayala, 57, died at the scene. Bexar County sheriff's officials said they believe Ayala was drunk.
Gamez's family and friends are setting up a plate sale and selling bump stickers to help raise money to pay for her medical expenses.