SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — It’s been a year and a half since a car crash ripped an Altamonte Springs family apart, and the COVID-19 pandemic has not helped with their struggles.

Shannon Zisa’s husband Dane was in a coma for almost five months after a suspected drugged driver veered onto the sidewalk in June 2019, hitting the couple and their 17-month-old, Adalyn, while they were out on a bike ride. Adalyn was killed in the crash. Shannon suffered leg, back, and head injuries, as well as post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

After getting out of the coma, Shannon said Dane went back and forth from a rehabilitation center to the intensive care unit and eventually was transferred to a brain center for 264 days. He was there when the pandemic hit.

From mid-March to September —  because of then-unknowns about the coronavirus, lack of personal protection equipment, and other pandemic precautions —  Shannon was not allowed to be in the same room as her husband.

“We had window visits, but the windows were so thick that basically you sat and talked on the phone and looked at the person through the window,” she explained.

“I watched Dane steadily decline, in fact in our interactions, because I wasn’t there,” Shannon said. “He asked on the phone, are you coming to see me? And how do you explain to a brain-injured person what this pandemic is when we don’t understand it as a general population.”

The couple celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in April in two different rooms, on opposite sides of glass. Shannon says she and the staff at the brain center worked to make the moment special.

“I had this big sign that said, Happy Anniversary…He was dressed up in his outfit from Valentine’s Day, in his dress shirt and dress pants, and he was proud as punch.”

Eventually, Shannon and Dane could be in the same room with masks on. Then, Dane was transferred to a memory center, which Shannon says requires masks, gowns, and gloves for visitors.

“You’re in this facility, but everybody’s wearing these gowns and gloves….All the human part of it has been taken away,” she explained. “It’s very sterile, and it needed to be. I don’t disagree with what they did at all for those patients. But goodness, you feel like a science experiment more than a loved one.”

Shannon said Dane has flashes when he remembers Adalyn but that he still has a long way to go in his recovery. Bills are mounting, and she wants to eventually transfer him back to the brain center, but says she can’t afford to right now because it’s more expensive.

Shannon was a stay-at-home mom prior to the car crash. Unable to work as she continues to recover physically and emotionally, she’s trying to live off her husband’s long-term disability policy.

The pandemic canceled numerous fundraisers that would have helped Shannon get through the year, so she is asking for help with online donations. She said the bills are overwhelming, but all she wants is the best care for her husband.

Shannon is also planning a celebration for Adalyn on New Year’s Day, which would have been her third birthday. She is inviting the community to come to the memorial site along Maitland Boulevard and Eden Park Road and asks that everyone wear masks.

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