Cost of DWI: The emotional cost

This story originally ran on News 8 Austin

Cost of DWI: The emotional cost
11/16/2005 2:13 PM
By: Crestina Chavez

Every 19 minutes in Texas a drunk driver will crash into someone's life.

Perhaps even you're own.

Joyce Hunt knows first-hand what it's like to relive a drunk-driving crash everyday. Seventeen years ago her 3-year-old son Mitchey was hurt by a drunk driver.

"In the bend of the car, there was a baby hanging by the seatbelt. That was Mitchey," she said.

He was spending the weekend with his father. On their way home, Mitchey's dad hit a culvert. It turns out his father's blood-alcohol was three times the legal limit.

"He had a broken back. Right femur, ruptured colon and pancreas, massive contusions all over his body. He was left a pretty sick, a pretty sick little boy," she said.

He spent 333 days in the hospital, 100 days in ICU and underwent 18 surgeries. He survived.

"One of the things he was so concerned about. He cried about was, 'Mommy, I don't have a belly button anymore.' Of all the things he was going through, this was a child," Joyce said.

Though he never lost his will to live the crash left Mitchey a paraplegic.

"He adapted to it. He played basketball. He did sports. If you didn't see his wheelchair, you didn't know he was paralyzed," Joyce said.

Joyce started working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to lobby for harsher punishment for drunk drivers.

"You want to give and want to give back more," she said.

Mitchey made it to the 11th grade when more bad news struck.

"[He] developed this rare brain disease, started having seizures, [I] took him hospital to hospital. In August 2002, I was told he has two weeks to a month to live."

Three years later, Mitchie is still around.

The disease is in some sort of remission. But it took his speech and limited movement.

But Joyce saw progress when her son cried for the first time in years.

"He's showing a lot of emotion. It's just going to take some time," Joyce said.

The single mother had times when she could barely make it.

"If you get behind on this bill because you had to pay this medical bill or get this medicine. You just say, 'I'm sorry, I'll get to it next month or when I can,' " she said.

She estimates she's racked up an easy $5 million in medical expenses.

"The emotional cost. It's there. It's evident. But, the financial cost. It's enormous," she said.

It took Joyce 16 years to forgive her ex-husband. She said it was like another person jumped right out of her. As for Mitchie's dad, he served two years of a five-year sentence. He visits Mitchie often, though he's experiencing health problems of his own.

It's been 10 years since Linda Sherwood-Varela crashed while driving drunk. She's not sure, if she has forgiven herself yet.

Sherwood-Varela is a strong professional woman with two children. And not what you think of when you hear "convicted felon."

"I had a glamorous career. I had everything," she said.

But in the instant of the crash her life changed from everything to nothing.

"You're a criminal and you've got to accept that," she said.

After a night of binge-drinking in downtown Houston, Sherwood-Varela ended up driving onto an exit ramp.

"For a long time I didn't know anything. I had convinced myself that I had killed someone and I didn't want to live," she said.

After three months in a coma, her victim survived.

"Just trying to exist from moment to moment was very difficult," she said.

She faced charges of intoxicated assault with a vehicle and she crumbled on the stand.

"My attorney said to tell the two beer story. All it took was for the judge to say, 'Linda tell me what happened that night.' I told him everything."

She was found guilty and sentenced to 30 days in jail and 10 years probation.

This happened in 1995, so don't count on a judge to be so lenient nowadays.

"I had no self-esteem. I didn't trust my decisions," she said.

Despite her depression, she got married had two children. Her marriage turned abusive and she filed for divorce.

"My criminal history, drunk driving and a felon. It left a big impression with the jury. Now, my abuser won custody of my children," she said.

She's still fighting for them but is forever haunted by her mistakes. She still struggles to forgive herself.

"I'd like to say I have. No one has ever asked me that," she said.

She speaks to dozens accused of drunk driving at a victim's impact panel.

"Just hoping to make an impact," she said.

And after 10 years she's done with probation and restitution: $60,000 not including court costs.

"It was sort of anticlimactic we celebrated. But, I'm still a felon. It won't ever go away," she said.

Linda has moved to Dallas is planning on remarrying. But her days in front of a judge are hardly over.

This time she'll try to get custody of her children.