Seriously Injured Midland Texas Parade Train Accident Victim Faces Long Recovery
(Atlanta, Georgia – November 25, 2012)
Meg Ladner was not a wounded war veteran. She was riding a semi-truck trailer, serving as a parade float, with her wounded warrior husband in the annual Midland, Texas commemoration of service members wounded in battle known as “Show of Support/Hunt for Heroes Thursday, November 15, when a Union Pacific freight train plowed through the parade at 62 mph.
Four of the honorees died in the tragedy, while 15 more, including both Meg and her husband, medically retired Army Sgt. Shane Ladner, who is now a member of the Holly Springs, GA Police Dept., were injured. A few are more seriously injured than Meg.
Meg’s left leg received crushing injuries when the train ran over her, and doctors were forced to amputate her left leg. In addition, she faces numerous additional surgeries; one, which took place Monday morning, and possibly six more months in the hospital as pins were placed in her right leg after the train crushed her pelvis during the accident. She is currently in critical but stable condition at Atlanta Medical Center.
While Shane stays at his wife’s side, he, himself is masking both his emotional pain as well as his physical ones, as his back was severely injured in the incident. He will forego treatment until his wife’s condition stabilizes.
While Shane is on leave from his job, community members in the Kennesaw, GA area where the Ladner family resides have set up two fundraiser events as well as set up a relief fund at the Cherokee Bank in Canton, GA to help the family with what promises to be massive medical and rehabilitative costs.
