After a devastating car accident left Kitti Tong in a coma, her colleague Regina Richardson stepped in as caregiver and friend. Over the course of seven years, their bond helped Tong overcome several health and mental challenges.
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How a co-worker turned caregiver is transforming a Virginia woman’s life
Kitti Tong and Regina Richardson didn’t know each other very well before the incident that changed Tong’s life.
They were co-workers at a hotel corporation in Maryland and bonded over their early morning arrivals and late night departures. They were both serious and eager to get their work done and make an impression.
But on Nov. 12, 2018, a car hit Tong in a Rockville crosswalk while she was on the way home from work. Her employee badge flew off after the crash.
The hospital needed a next of kin to call. Tong’s mother had passed away years earlier, so the hospital called the company’s vice president. He and Richardson rushed there.
While their boss stood at a desk asking for Tong’s room, Richardson busted through the ICU doors.
“For a while, it was very touch and go where we didn’t know what the outcome would be, but I knew what a fighter she was,” Richardson told WTOP.
That was the start of a now yearslong relationship, during which Richardson has helped Tong recover from several brain surgeries, navigate physical and occupational therapy and find the right words when she can’t.
Tong has aphasia, which leaves her sometimes struggling to understand others or have difficulty speaking herself.
With help from the MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, and Richardson’s care, Tong has hobbies and socializes with friends, capitalizing on a second chance at life.
“She’s a miracle,” Richardson said. “Just through and through.”
Immediately after the crash, Tong spent a month in a coma on life support. Every day she was there, Richardson visited.
When it came time for Tong to be discharged, “there was no place else that she needed to be, except here, because I knew we could tackle it together,” Richardson said.
Tong’s new reality took a toll. She became depressed, but determined with Richardson’s help.
On some days, that meant reading Post-it notes on different objects around Richardson’s home. It meant learning how to get in and out of a car and up and down the stairs safely.
They sang Christmas songs in July, “because that was able to be triggered earlier,” Richardson said. And they often communicated through pictures.
In case Tong ever got lost, Richardson made sure she knew she lived near the Pentagon.
After her initial five-month hospital stay, it took Tong a year to learn to walk again, and even longer to start speaking. At first, she started with short sentences.
“Regina is an angel,” Tong said. “She helped me a lot to my journey. The OT, PT, the physical is fine, but my mental is not fine. My mental state feel like my suicide, but Regina helped me through a lot.”
While they watch TV together and each have separate daily responsibilities, Richardson sometimes finds herself staring at the ceiling. It’s one of the few ways she can always be listening to be sure Tong is safe but also have alone time.
It’s the approach Richardson took after Tong had a seizure in the shower. She moved quickly to protect Tong’s head and get her out.
Sara Cappello, a senior physical therapist at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, said when patients “don’t have a bond like Regina had for Kitti, it’s so hard for patients who are going through a hard time like this to dig deep and find that internal motivation, because so much is happening to them.”
The outcome, Cappello said, is “a miracle, but it also just goes to show how strong she is.”
Tong has a poster with photos at various stages of her recovery, and a notebook with words she once jotted down. On the one year anniversary of the crash, she visited the hospital, offering the staff a glimpse at the impact of their work.
On Wednesday night, the seven-year anniversary, which always falls during National Family Caregivers Month, she celebrated with dinner.
“She is my caregiver, but she’s my sister,” Tong said.
“There’s nothing more important than caregiving that I’ve done in my life,” Richardson said.
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Scott Gelman
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