Action 3 News - Omaha, Nebraska News, Weather, and Sports | Stabbing Victim Battles Debt and Injury
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Omaha, NE - She barely survived when a purse snatcher's knife punctured her lung, now she's afraid she'll die in debt. Cheryl Larsen-Kear's painful story is eerily similar to what was on Oprah. A woman survives a tragedy, only to realize that her family is left in an uncontrollable cycle of debt. Cheryl knows exactly how that feels. The Iowa woman lived through an attack in a busy store, now she's trying to recover from a financial nightmare.
"That's when someone hollered, Oh my god, she's got a knife," says Cheryl Larsen-Kear. A late night shopping trip ruins a woman's life. Back in July, Larsen stopped to pick up a few things at Wal-mart. It was for a road trip to her father-in-law's funeral, but she'd never make it.
"I said oh my god that hurts and I went to lean this way and that's when the lady said oh my god she's bleeding on her back ." A woman who tried to steal Larsen's purse, stabbed her in the arm, neck and back. Store workers rushed to help her and get her to the hospital. But even with doctors pumping pain medicine into her, it wasn't enough, the knife punctured her lung.
7 months later, Larsen sees a doctor once a month and takes morphine twice a day. But it's not just the physical pain she's struggling with, it's the mental anguish of bills piling up. Insurance handled most of the bills, but she still owes 10,000 dollars and can't work to pay them. Her husband has come out of retirement to try and help but it's not enough.
Now collectors are calling and Larsen's forced to try and reason with them, all over a stabbing that wasn't her fault.
Rosalind Fuller, the woman who stabbed Larsen, will be sentenced in April.
Reported by Molli Graham, mgraham@action3news
