Elderly Woman Struggles For Life After Hit-And-Run
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On a day so many of us travel to grandma's house, a Twin Cities family is visiting their great-grandmother in the hospital.
A driver hit 70-year-old Mintrawati Dhannu Tuesday morning, and left her badly hurt and bleeding in the street.
The hit-and-run happened as she tried to cross West Lake Street at Blaisdell Avenue in Minneapolis on her way to a K-Mart store.
Police say she was run over and dragged more than 8 feet, and the driver never stopped.
"It's very hard. It's hard to see her that way. She is the first one at our doorstep if something is wrong."
Dhannu's family members say she is the rock of their family. A kind-hearted woman who is always there for others. Now, the family is trying to be there for her.
"She is the matriarch of the family. She's respected and she's loved and we are heart-broken that she is that way and we can't do anything to help her," said niece, Zaeira Khan.
Dhannu is fighting for her life at Hennepin County Medical Center. Her family says she has several broken bones, a punctured lung and a crushed diaphragm.
While they spend their Thanksgiving praying that she gets better, they are also trying to find out why someone would hit her and leave her on a cold, icy road.
"It's cold hearted to leave a woman her age and her stature on the street to die like a dog. He didn't even stop and render his assistance -- another passerby had to help her," said Khan.
Subryan Dhannu said he and his wife have been married more than 50 years, and seeing her in a hospital bed has been very hard.
"I don't see any improvement at present. Yesterday morning, when I first talked to her, she opened her eyes and squeezed my finger. Today, I don't see any improvement. It's been very hard. I miss her a lot," said Dhannu.
Police say there weren't any working surveillance cameras around the scene at the time of the crash.
Dhannu is a great-grandmother who came to the United States from Guyana in South America. Her family says she is an avid volunteer.
The family would also like to find the passerby who helped Dhannu so they can thank them.
