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ST. GEORGE — In July 2019, Cristina Gaona and a group of friends, all from Pine View High School, planned a trip to Disneyland for a weekend before they were set to leave for college. When the group arrived in Anaheim, they went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and on the way back from the store they were T-boned by a drunk driver.
Of the five teens in the car, two were left in critical condition with Cristina being one of them. All five of the teens survived the accident but Cristina was left with serious brain damage as a result of the crash.
“It literally changed her life completely,” Cristina’s dad Jose Gaona said. “She was one of the most social girls in school. She was always at the school events, basketball, soccer, football, baseball, you name it. She was literally there most of the time. Now she’s isolated and she can’t go out or talk. She has to relearn all of that. She can’t even walk right now.”
Doctors removed the right side of her skull for about four months and then they put it back when Cristina returned to St. George from Southern California. Jose said that she has been responding more and more since the surgery.
The family now uses social media and various platforms to speak out against drunk driving, speaking about the impact it has on not only the people who are injured but also their families.
“We use social media mainly,” Jose said. “We have an account called the Gaona Strong Foundation* and we try to build awareness on how dangerous it is to drive drunk. It impacts not only the person injured but the entire family.”
Read the full article at St. George News.
KSL's Southern Utah News Section
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