This is a personal message from St. Helena Star (St. Helena, CA) freelance writer
Garrett Whitt, who was injured in a hit-and-run accident in St. Helena on Tuesday
night when returning home from St. Helena High’s 2-1 win over the Clear Lake
(Lakeport) Cardinals in the CIF North Coast Section Div. V softball playoffs. Whitt,
who has had cerebral palsy since birth, gets around in a mobilized wheelchair.
Police and community members are searching for the motorist that struck Whitt
and drove away. Whitt, who is known as “wheels” and “The G-Man” sustained a
broken tibia and fibula in his right leg and bruising on the left side of his body. Whitt
is currently at Queen of the Valley Hospital in nearby Napa, CA, where he was
airlifted, and shared these thoughts via phone on Sunday morning:
“This is not the dearly departed G.S. Whitt checking in with everyone saying, like
the old Mark Twain line, ‘News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated.’ I’m
still trying to find out if anyone has any idea of the license plate of the car that hit me
but we’ll get to that at some point. You can tell the softball girls, who reached the
finals (on Friday), I was coming back from the game when the aforementioned
event happened. After that, many of the details are foggy where people tell me I
was lucid.
Darrell Quirici, Brandon Farrell, Mike Thompson and his wife (Janet) were there.
His wife is a registered nurse.
****NOTE: Farrell is the St. Helena High athletic director and softball head coach.
Quirici is an assistant along with Kristin Ashley. Thompson is a U.S. Representative
for California’s 5th District and resides in St. Helena.
The last thing I remembered was being airlifted to Queen of the Valley. I was in the
helicopter with a deputy sheriff. I asked him, ``Am I going to make it?” he said, ‘I
think so.’ That gave me some confidence. The rest of that, I remember some of it
because I was talking to the doctors as they evaluated me. They did x-rays and I
broke my right tibia and fibula. They’ve been repaired. I had surgery Wednesday
evening. The surgery went well, according to my sister. I’m on the mend but I’ll be
on the DL (Disabled List) for several weeks. You can tell the guys in St. Helena that
I’ll be out the rest of spring practice but hopefully by the time summer workouts
happen after graduation, I'll be able to come and see what’s happening. Thank you
to everybody that has reached out. There has been a gofundme page to help get a
new wheelchair, that goes to Ray Particelli and his family, specifically his cousin
Francesca, who is a nurse in Santa Rosa. She has come over a couple of times
and checked on me. We’re still looking for the vehicle that ran me down. In sports
terms, I tried to take the charge but it didn’t work. I firmly believe that things
happen for a reason. I tempted fate and won this time. There’s still more to be
done. I thank everyone for their help. I hope that when this is over that I can return
the favor in whatever form possible.”
Leonora Particelli, who is the sister of the aforementioned Ray Particelli, has
established a gofundme page to cover expenses for a new wheelchair and
subsequent home care:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-donate-to-help-garrett-whitt?qid=e06bd52e907262525aade4d2907294ba
