What a difference a day makes.
On Tuesday, 8-year-old Kaitlyn Bradfield was in the intensive care unit at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children with a tube down her throat, while doctors tried to determine just how badly she had been injured by a hit-and-run driver earlier in the day.
Yesterday, Kaitlyn was up and chatting on the phone to her enormously relieved relatives.
“She called and talked to everybody. She asked her mommy to bring her dolly to the hospital,” said Dorothea Ball, the girl’s aunt.
“She seems upbeat,” Ball added. “It’s a world of difference, for sure.”
Police said Kaitlyn and her twin sister, Eryca, were struck by a gray Lincoln Towncar at Colgate Street and Cheltenham Avenue about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Eryca suffered bumps and bruises. Kaitlyn suffered a worse fate — the car actually rolled over her abdomen, leaving tire marks on her body. She was initially admitted to St. Christopher’s in critical condition.
She has since been upgraded to good condition, and the worst of her injuries appear to be a broken ankle and broken arm, Ball said last night.
Meanwhile, the hunt for the motorist who mowed down the girls took an encouraging turn yesterday.
Police identified Shawn Timbers, 22, of Alcott Street near Frontenac in Northeast Philadelphia, as a “person of interest” in the case.
Timbers is believed to be a relative of the owner of the Lincoln, an investigator said.
Detectives found the car on Cheltenham Avenue near Summerdale Avenue a few hours after the accident. Their investigation was aided, in part, by a handful of residents who witnessed the accident, then chased after the car and jotted down the license plate number.
Ball said family members believe an angel was watching over Kaitlyn and Eryca, who were hit by the heartless motorist as they walked to a corner store.
Eryca, who was treated and released from St. Christopher’s a few hours after the accident, has pined to be with her sister.
The two girls, Ball noted, are inseparable.
“Eryca told her mom she wants to be in the hospital, with Kaitlyn,” she said. “They’re very, very close.”
Anyone with information on Timbers’ whereabouts can contact police at 215-685-3180.
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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