just a lot of yelling and screaming to people to pull the car off my son.” Devora used her cell phone to call her husband Maurice Sr., who was in Philadelphia, telling him about the accident and that their son was pinned between two cars. “Then, the phone went dead,” says Maurice Sr. “My mind is racing all over the place. I couldn’t get in touch with Devora, so I called Deja. I asked her, ‘Is he breathing?’ That’s all I wanted to know.”
t was a horrific moment that no parent should ever experience and it was one that Devora Minnifield will never forget. On March 16, 2012, just as she’d done dozens of times before, Devora left the family’s Allentown row home and was crossing the street with her two children, Maurice, 11, and Deja, 15, when an SUV turning the corner spiraled out of control and hit a van waiting at the stop light. It then veered right, slamming into a parked car and pinning Devora and Maurice between that car and another that was parked in front. Devora saw Deja struck in the left thigh by a parking sign pole. But Maurice and Devora were wedged between the cars, leaving Devora helpless and panicking. “We were both caught,” recalls Devora. “Maurice couldn’t move at all but I was able to get my leg out. I don’t remember much,
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Young Maurice was breathing and in fact had remained remarkably calm. “The first two minutes I didn’t feel any pain, because I didn’t realize what was happening,” says Maurice. ”Then I felt my blood get really warm and I wanted to go to sleep.” It took about 20 minutes, but to Devora, it was an eternity before emergency rescue crews and police were able to get one of the cars moved and free Maurice. Mother, daughter and son were all taken to the emergency room where Maurice Sr. found them lying on gurneys. Deja and Devora suffered relatively minor injuries compared to Maurice who needed immediate surgery on his left femur which was badly broken. Surgeons inserted a titanium rod in his leg. Maurice Sr. and Devora were both worried about lasting nerve damage to their son. Would he be able to resume the normal, active life of any 11-year-old boy? Would he walk with a limp? Would greater complications develop? These were just some of the questions they had as the time came for Maurice to be