NECN Exclusive: Lunenburg, Mass. Hit-and-run Victim Speaks Out

(NECN: Alysha Palumbo - Worcester, Mass.) - Kervens Elysee says he's lucky to be alive.

“I was, like, yelling, ‘Jesus help me, don’t let me pass away, don’t let me pass away,'" said the 26-year-old from Fitchburg, Mass.

Elysee says a white pickup truck with a plow on the front struck him while he was walking to work last Thursday at about 5:30 a.m. on Summer Street in Lunenburg.

“The car stopped for like a few seconds and then he took off,” he recalled from his hospital bed.

Elysee’s legs had been severely injured in the impact and he says he could only watch as the driver who hit him seemed to realize what they’d done then sped off toward Leominster.

“He could have saved me, I believe,” said Elysee, “it was freezing, I was laid down there for like, more than 30 minutes.”

Lying in the road next to snowbanks with his legs grotesquely broken, he tried to flag down other cars in the darkness.

“There was another car was coming to hit me, I lift up my hand, and said ‘please help me, my two legs are broken’ and then he was coming to hit me, the other car, and then he passed to the other side,” Elysee said.

After that near miss, he says a father and son came out of nowhere, saying they had called 911 and help was on the way.

“I say thank you, God will bless them, the way God blessed me,” said Elysee.

But his fight is far from over. He was flown to UMass Memorial’s University Campus in Worcester, where he underwent surgery on both his legs.

Elysee’s now out of the ICU, and he says doctors are hopeful he’ll walk again, but that will mean a lot of rehabilitation and physical therapy.

He says what’s getting him through is the unwavering support of his wife Syndi, who’s four months pregnant with their first child.

“She holds my hand every night when I’m in pain, if only God will help me get out from here,” said Elysee.

Lunenburg Police say a nearby surveillance camera caught a glimpse of the suspect's vehicle briefly stopping and then speeding off.

They're asking anyone with any information on this hit and run on Summer Street from Thursday, February 27 at 5:30 a.m. to call them at 978-582-4531.

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