A Guyanese woman who suffered a nightmarish accident on her way to her naturalisation ceremony, which left her in a coma for three days, finally became a US citizen last Wednesday, thanks to a judge who makes hospital calls, a New York Daily Post report said yesterday.
According to the report, 46-year-old Shanttarag Raghunanan, who is still recovering from a fractured hip, took the Oath of Citizenship at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, along with her husband, Henry, and daughter, Lisa.
The report said Brooklyn Federal Judge Roslynn Mauskopf was to preside over their public ceremony on December 27, 2007, but Raghunanan was struck by a livery cab across the street from the court.
The report said that after the woman emerged from a coma three days later, she had no recollection of the accident but was concerned about missing the ceremony.
“She said, ‘I have to go to the ceremony,’ then, ‘Are they still going to do it?'” said her daughter Lisa Raghunanan, 21, an accounting student at LaGuardia Community College.
Mauskopf obliged on Wednesday and the woman and her family took the oath during a private ceremony.
“We’re very happy now,” Lisa Raghunanan said.
