RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (KTHV) — A Russellville burger joint is helping one of their own who was hit by a car on her way home from work. And this isn't the first tragedy this family has faced recently.
Hannah Fugate, 18, has worked at Feltner's Whatta-burger for about a year. On Saturday, after leaving work around 11:00 p.m. she was hit by a car while riding her bike home from work.
Jacob Coffman is a manager at Feltner's Whatta-burger.
"It was just a freak accident," Coffman said. “She's one of my great employees and she's an even greater person"
"We're just praying. We believe in the power of prayer," said Fugate's mom, Joyce Brown.
According to Brown, her daughter suffers respiratory failure, a broken leg, collapsed lungs and multiple other injuries.
"She's going to recover from all of her injuries if we can just get her through the respiratory failure," said Brown.
This isn't the first tragedy this family has faced.
"Two and a half months ago, on October 14th, Keaton was hit by a car," Brown said.
Keaton is Hannah's 21-year-old brother who was hit while riding a moped in Russellville.
"The first accident was horrible to go through, to watch your child suffer physically and then to see they won't be the child you raised, emotionally or mentally. But I had finally gotten to a place where I was OK with that and then I got the call about Hannah and it's been unreal, didn't understand how something like this could happen twice," Brown said.
Feltner's Whatta-burger will start selling cookies for $1 on Saturday to raise money for the family. Already, they've received donations including gas cards for her family to drive back and forth from UAMS.
"Just overwhelmed. She's always loved her job so I'm just amazed by the response and I think its amazingly generous," Brown said.
Hannah is in ICU at UAMS. She has been sedated since the accident, but is expected to fully recover. Keaton wasn't expected to survive, but Brown tells us he's doing well and they're just hoping he can recover more of his brain function.