Action News Now reporter Camille Acevedo spoke to the victim's father.
CHICO, Calif. - Chico State freshman Masie Boland was starting her first week of college when tragedy struck.
On Aug. 29, the 18-year-old from Guerneville was a passenger in a rollover crash on Upper Park Road near Wildwood Avenue in Chico.
Masie Boland’s dad is holding onto hope that after that crash left his little girl paralyzed.
“It’s a nightmare you can’t wake up from, but each day we find a little light,” Shawn Boland said. “It seems that the big things in life suddenly disappeared and now it’s all about the small things. Her little triumphs.”
Boland is currently being treated at Enloe Hospital.
Her dad said she is paralyzed from the ribs down. She broke her upper back, C5 and C6, which are located in the lower neck and part of the spine. She said she can move her arms but is struggling to move her fingers.
“Every day she is feeling a little more, but I guess it’s a slow process,” Shawn Boland said. “We are insisting on a miracle for her.”
Shawn said Masie was always independent. She was excited to start college at Chico State to major in early childhood development with dreams of becoming a first-grade teacher, which he says is still the goal.
“First she wants to regain the use of her hands because she is 18 and an 18-year-old without her phone is not a pretty site and then get her back here independent, however we can,” Shawn Boland said.
Boland said he and his daughter were always close and now more than ever, he will do whatever it takes to help her on the journey to recovery.
“Right now we feel pretty helpless, but we are by her side every second,” Boland said. “From what we are hearing, it’s a long road, but she’s got a fire in her.”
Police arrested the person driving the car she was in. The suspect was identified as 18-year-old Nathaniel James Callahan for felony DUI.
