ORANGE PARK, Fla. – An Orange Park mother is counting her blessings after her 18-year-old son was hit by a car and left for dead Monday evening in the middle of Blanding Boulevard.
Kellie Maloney said she didn't find out about the accident that nearly took her son's life until Tuesday morning.
She said her son, Mathew Maloney, suffered internal injuries and numerous bone breaks, including in his legs, arms, pelvis and shoulders. She said the good news was he did not suffer any kind of brain injury, which likely saved his life.
He has been in and out of consciousness, but he can't speak yet and doesn't really remember the crash or understand what happened to him, Kellie Maloney said.
According to investigators, the accident happened around 8 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Blanding Boulevard and Wells Road.
The Florida Highway Patrol said a green Buick was traveling northbound on Blanding Boulevard and hit Mathew Maloney while he was walking in the crosswalk. The driver of the Buick then fled the scene, traveling northbound, police said.
The car was found later by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, abandoned in a business parking lot near Blanding Boulevard and Youngerman Circle, about two blocks from the accident site.
Investigators later determined that same car was reported to the Clay County Sheriff's Office stolen a few hours before the crash.
Eric Roenisch (pictured), 37, was arrested just hours after the crash and charged with grand theft auto. He was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury.
Kellie Maloney said she didn't find out about her son's accident until the next morning, because he was out running when the crash happened and he didn't have any identification on him except his phone, which was badly damaged in the crash. She said rescue workers had no way to immediately identify Mathew.
Kellie Maloney said she began the process of filing a missing persons report with police after Mathew, who recently graduated high school, never came home from his run. When she began describing what he was wearing and what he looked like, officers figured out he was the one involved in the hit-and-run crash.
But despite not having his family there until the next day, Mathew was not alone at the hospital. A man saw the crash and stopped to help.
The man, Steven Smith, told Kellie Maloney he was waiting in his car at the traffic light and locked eyes with Mathew as he crossed the street, seconds before the accident. Smith, a Navy veteran and father devoted to his family, said the brief connection they made compelled him to stay with the teen until his family arrived.
"The day Mathew crossed my vehicle, there was a connection there," Smith said. "And that bond will always be."
Smith said he thought at first that Mathew didn't make it, but then he started moving.
"We were all just saying, 'Don't move. Don't get up.' Out of all the things you could say, this is what you tell somebody?" Smith said. "That shows you the fight this guy has inside him."
Mathew's struggle is real. He can't move. He can't speak. Nearly every bone in his body is broken. But miraculously he didn't suffer any brain damage.
"I had told him that I loved him, and he blinked, 'I love you, too' back to me. And it meant a lot, because I just don't know what he really knows and what's going on in his head," Kellie Maloney said.
Kellie Maloney has had health struggles of her own. She has tumors on a portion of her spinal cord and brain stem, and doctors initially gave her six months to live. That was six years ago. Her tumors are inoperable because of where they're located, but the medication she receives has kept the tumors from growing.
Now Kellie Maloney knows her son's long road to recovery is just beginning.
Smith said they won't have to walk that road alone. He is a physical therapist and said he plans to help Mathew through his recovery.
Smith told Kellie Maloney he sees her family as his, and she said that feeling is reciprocated. She said she believes Smith was meant to be in their lives.
"I have no doubt in my mind," Kellie Maloney said. "I tell him, 'You're my son's guardian angel.'"
A title Smith humbly accepts.
"That's some good words. I have a lot of things that happen, and we pull through and just for me to be there, and to make sure he's good to go. I'm happy," Smith said. "God sent me to be there for that family. That's it."
The family has set up a GoFundMe page for Mathew to help with medical expenses. To donate, go to http://www.gofundme.com/pbmfpk.