A B.C. woman is speaking out about her long road to recovery — and the challenges she’s been having with ICBC — after being hit by a car that smashed into a West Vancouver Whole Foods.
Jasmine Osterman was shopping on June 9 when a man in his 80s crashed a BMW into the Park Royal grocery store and drove into the produce section.
Osterman was impaled by debris in her backside in the crash.
“I tried to jump to my left,” Osterman told Global News.
“I got pinned against a stationery table and the car was still coming at me, pushing all these metal tables … I remember thinking, ‘Oh God I’m going to die.”
Fortunately there was a doctor in the store who jumped in to do first aid, but her wound ultimately required a layer of internal stitches followed by 21 external stitches to close up.
Osterman, a former nurse, said the situation has left her with both physical and emotional pain.
“Is it my fault I was in a store shopping for tomatoes and I got injured? My life has been turned upside down, it’s affected me, it’s affected my family, it’s affected my ability to enjoy life,” she said.
“And no one is culpable, the driver has not acknowledged wrongdoing, taken responsibility, apologized — you’re just left hanging.”
Osterman she’s said she’s also now dealing with a headache in the form of ICBC’s no-fault insurance, which she described as frustrating and difficult to navigate.
And she alleged it it took the public insurer 20 days to deploy someone to assess her.
“They should have had a wound care nurse or an (occupational therapist) come and assess me day one,” she said.
ICBC said Osterman has been entitled to care from day one, and that it had offered to make that care available.
“Mrs. Osterman was initially reluctant to allow an occupational therapist to visit her home,” ICBC said in a statement.
“She’s entitled to $1,589 per month for personal care assistance from the day she returned home from the hospital.”
How the crash happened remains unclear. West Vancouver police say the investigation remains open and ongoing.