Question: Whatever happened to the woman whose car was struck by the SUV in which former University of Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan was a passenger and his girlfriend, Shakti Stream, the driver?
Answer: Dr. Theresa Wang, a family physician, lay in a coma after a stroke following the crash, suffering traumatic injuries, including brain and spinal injuries and 22 broken bones.
“The doctors didn’t think I was going to survive,” Wang said. “It just amazes me when I think back when I was in a wheelchair and praying I could walk and stand.”
Today, after more than a year of medical treatments and therapy, she walks with the aid of a cane.
On Nov. 19, 2010, Stream crossed the center line, colliding head-on with Wang’s car in Kona. Brennan suffered serious injuries, but has since recovered. Stream had a shoulder injury.
As to her prognosis, she said she doesn’t think she will improve much more than she has.
Wang said she hopes to have the metal hardware that keeps her bones together removed.
“It feels like I’m walking on train tracks,” she said.
The Waikoloa woman can’t drive, nor can she enjoy one of her favorite pastimes: snorkeling.
Wang’s cognitive deficits are undetectable during conversation, but she recognizes a drop in short-term memory, although her long-term memory appears to be intact.
“I wish I could say I’m 100 percent,” Wang said. “Whether I could return to work, it’s probably not likely.
“For the safety of the patients, I’d like to stand back and work on research in brain injury,” as well as in advocacy for the brain-injured, she said.
Wang’s pre-accident memory was extraordinary. She could recall tests ordered weeks before, as well as patients’ medications.
Wang is focused now on sharing her experience through her writing. She and her husband, David Chen, financial controller for the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, are working on a book.
“It’s about our journey through this,” she said. “In my head, it’s not a recovery. It’s a discovery.
“It strengthened our marriage. He’s proven his love for me.”
The two now spend more quality time together and express their love and appreciation through the spoken and written word.
Despite the loss of her career, the damage to her brain and body from the accident, Wang says she’s a better for it.
“My mother thinks I’m nicer,” Wang said. “She said, ‘I like the new Theresa better.’ At first I was angry, but no this is good. I was really more harsh, a determined person, more driven.”
As for Stream and Brennan, Wang said, “I’m a little sad for both Shakti and for Colt because they were just young and starting out, and they’ve already gone through a lot. His football career is not there.”
With all the news of head injuries, “football is not the greatest thing for him,” she said. She’d like to say to him: “Colt, you better rethink your line of work.”
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This update was written by Leila Fujimori. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.
