Alka Patel is now stuck to the family couch for a good part of the day. She uses prayer to take the mind off the pain from a hit-and-run that happened in July at their gas station in Mesquite.
She whispers prayers in her native Indian tongue of Gujrati. Patel says she is thankful to just be alive. "All of a sudden, he just came so far back. I didn't think he was going to come that much," Patel recalled.
Surveillance cameras from their gas station captured an SUV pull out of a spot, back straight into her, run her over, and drive off.
She has endured multiple breaks and bruises from collar bone to knee and now facing a mountain of medical bills. "Somebody just put me in a cage, where I can't even do anything," she said.
Mesquite police say Jose Ortiz-Mendoza was driving that SUV. He was arrested and charged in early August.
Even with pain medicine, getting a drink of water takes ten minutes. And if you think this is pain, imagine it compounded by the fact that her husband was killed at that gas station nearly 17 years ago.
Vasudev was killed by a white supremacist who went on a shooting spree after the September 11 terrorist attacks. "I don't know what miracle saved me," she said. She is thankful to her two children who have been completely supportive with her long recovery.