Banged, Broken And On The Road To Recovery, A Newtown Resident Is Thankful

By Shannon Hicks

When Marianne Noyes-Ryder and her family moved to Newtown two years ago, no one expected she would soon be involved in something that would make headlines. Marianne and her husband, Rob Ryder, were planning to continue running their business of financial planning for individuals, families, and small businesses. The couple’s three children — Carden, Nick, and Austin — were a high school freshman, a seventh grader, and a third grader, respectively.

Ms Noyes-Ryder was the victim of a hit-and-run accident, suffering major injuries that would keep many people in bed or a wheelchair for the rest of their life. Yet Ms Noyes-Ryder is grateful for the community that quickly surrounded her and helped take care of her family.

“Today I’m again raising my family,” she said recently. “That in itself is a miracle. I could have been in a box, under the ground.”

The Ryder family moved into Newtown in October 2002. Seven months later, on May 29, 2003, Marianne Noyes-Ryder was the victim of a hit-and-run accident that left her lying on the side of Sugar Street (Route 302).

Around 5 pm that afternoon Ms Noyes-Ryder had been jogging along Sugar Street, which she did on a regular basis, when she was hit by a 1995 Ford F-150 pickup truck that was being driven, it was later learned, by an intoxicated man. The driver left the scene without stopping to help Ms Noyes-Ryder.

At the time of the accident Ms Noyes-Ryder, then 43, had been jogging eastward along the shoulder of Sugar Street, about 2,000 feet east of the road’s intersection of Head O’ Meadow Road. A number of phone calls from drivers then alerted police to the fact Ms Ryder-Noyes had been struck. According to an article in the June 20, 2003, issue of The Newtown Bee, Patrol Officer Thomas Bean found Ryder lying in the eastbound lane of Route 302. An unidentified doctor, who had been passing by the accident scene, was tending to the woman.

“[Ryder] was semiconscious, but could provide no details as to what had happened,” according to court papers filed when Michael Williams, the driver, was later arrested.

In November 2003, Danbury Superior Court judge sentenced Mr Williams, 32, of Sherman, to six years in state prison, plus five years of probation after prison, for the hit-and-run accident. Mr Williams had entered pleas of “no contest” to two felonies –– evading responsibility with serious injury and second degree assault with a motor vehicle. He is currently incarcerated at a state prison in Enfield.

Ms Noyes-Ryder’s injuries included a fractured right femur and fractured neck, a dislocated right elbow, a shattered right forearm, a broken left shoulder blade, two broken ribs, a lacerated liver, bruised bladder and kidney damage, plus multiple cuts and bruises. An assortment of rods, plates, and screws were used to hold together shattered bones.

Today she is defying expectations, continuing her rehabilitation, and has a positive outlook on life. To see her walking is to see what appears to be a woman with only a slight limp. Inside, Ms Noyes-Ryder still suffers from physical pain, but on the outside she is a positive force.

“It’s amazing what the human body can go through,” Ms Noyes-Ryder said. “It’s amazing to me that someone went though and figured out how the body works, and that people have figured out how to fix almost any injury to the body.”

Rehabilitation began almost immediately. Ms Noyes-Ryder spent three weeks at Danbury Hospital following the accident, but began working through her injuries as soon as she could as part of the hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation unit. That is where Ms Noyes-Ryder, who had always been very active, began learning how to walk again.

“They don’t let you rest at the hospital,” she said, adding that she fainted the first time she went to physical therapy. “The pain was terrible, but I was already fighting atrophy. It’s amazing how quickly the body can deteriorate, but marvelous how much it can also bounce back.”

Physical and occupational therapy followed at Main Street Physical Rehabilitation Center in Danbury, and then she worked with Paul Barry of Newtown Physical Therapy. She still has physical therapy sessions three times a week.

She has also been told she will need at least two more surgeries between January and May 2005, and there may be some reconstructive surgery in her future.

“I worry about any unnecessary surgery,” she admitted, referring to reconstructive surgery that could be done on her leg. “Right now we’re focusing on the two impending surgeries.”

The first surgery will be to remove some of the hardware that is in her body — a rod in her leg that has stabilized her femur, and a plate and eight screws in her forearm.

Even through pain, Ms Noyes-Ryder sets an example of levity.

“I’m crooked now on my right side,” she says. “I’m like a table that wobbles.”

“This community is just so surprising,” Ms Noyes-Ryder said. “Meals were brought to our hour three times a week until the end of August [2003]. Families we hadn’t even met yet were taking turns creating these beautiful meals, and making sure we were eating.

“The generosity and the organization among people was amazing,” she continued. “This is where you see how mankind can be so good. I received notes in my mailbox — from formal cards to notes jotted on pieces of paper, all encouraging me — from people I didn’t even know.

“It was such a boost of morality that people took time out of their busy days to reach out to me.”

She was also impressed on the day of the accident — as most people are when they need help from the town’s first responders — at the medical attention she received on the side of the road.

“I still can’t believe how quickly the ambulance got to me, and then how they began working on me and got me to the hospital,” she recalls.

“Rehabilitation will be going on for a while, but life goes on,” she said. “It’s amazing how your perspective changes, especially when you think about what could have been. It makes a huge impression on a person.”

Marianne Noyes-Ryder has made great strides in her recovery efforts. She’s walking, and working hard and bringing life back to normal.

“I’m still a good year away from finishing everything,” she said.

She’s just not ready to take a jog quite yet.