Good Samaritans lifted a bus off a woman trapped beneath it in Virginia this summer, and now another good Samaritan is letting the victim live with him as she recovers.
Yijing Du and her 28-year-old son, Bin Jiang, were visiting the United States from China for 10 days in June when tragedy struck -- they were involved in a terrible bus crash and Du had her legs partially amputated.
As she recovers, she and her son say a stranger's generosity has filled them with hope. Fairfax, Virginia, resident Chris Dodge is sharing his home with the mother and son as Du recovers.
Du and Jiang were riding in a shuttle bus the evening of June 14 when the bus crashed head-on with a car on George Washington Parkway in Mt. Vernon, Virginia.
The crash ejected some of its 18 passengers, killing one person, and forced the bus onto its side. Jiang did not realize until he saw people trying to push the bus upright that his mother was trapped underneath it.
Du had her legs partially amputated and her family soon found that their travel insurance would not cover the full cost of her medical bills or hotel expenses.
Jiang created a GoFundMe page called "Help My Mother Walk Again" and asked for help covering medical expenses.
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Last month, Dodge was looking at the fundraising page of a friend who was hurt in a motorcycle crash when he happened to see the page for Du, he said. He realized he could help.
"I really felt like I was uniquely equipped to do something, to really help them," the 28-year-old app developer said.
Dodge, who had just started studying Mandarin, moved his home office out of the second bedroom of his apartment and set it up for Du.
Despite the cramped quarters and the challenge of communication, Jiang said Dodge's hospitality is a blessing.
"Chris [is] like my brother," he said with a smile.
Doctors believe that Du will walk again with the use of artificial limbs. Her recovery is expected to take six months of intensive treatment and cost $100,000.
"She will walk. She will walk in America," Jiang said.
Dodge said the mother and son can share his apartment indefinitely.
"As long as they need a home here, they can stay here," he said.
