......YUNGCHEN LHAMO’S NEPHEW IN NEW YORK HIT AND RUN

YUNGCHEN LHAMO’S NEPHEW IN NEW YORK HIT AND RUN

In 2003, when she first came to the United States, Nyiga Tenzin Nordon, Yungchen Lhamo’s sister, began working with immigration officials to have her son, Gonpo join her in New York. She was granted political asylum in 2005. She said Gonpo's father was murdered because of his political beliefs in Tibet, which the Chinese have occupied since the 1950s. Gonpo never knew his father because when he was only 3 weeks old when his father was killed.

Gonpo, a native of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, had been in New York close to two weeks when he and his mother went for a walk on the morning of June 8 near their home in Sunnyside, Queens. They had planned to go shopping. At a traffic light on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street, they stood on the sidewalk, waiting to cross the wide, busy boulevard.

His mother, Nyiga Tenzin Nordon, told him to be cautious. "I said: 'This is Queens Boulevard. It's a very dangerous place, so anytime you cross this street you have to be careful,' " she said.

Seconds later, before they even tried to cross, she heard a loud boom. In this city of collisions, everything — car frames, healthy bones, peace of mind — can shatter in an instant.

A red Jeep Cherokee with Florida license plates collided with a silver Honda Civic, and the impact sent the Honda over the curb and into a pole, striking Gonpo, Ms. Nordon and two other pedestrians.

Gonpo's right leg was crushed below the knee, and he was taken to Bellevue. The driver of the Jeep sped away. Gonpo remains at Bellevue, in his room on the eighth floor, on his bed, not saying much, not even to his mother. The police say the driver of the Jeep caused the accident.

Ms. Nordon, 35, says she often thinks about the driver. The police have yet to capture him. "He just left like that," she said. "He's not a human being. No matter what, he should have stopped."

She sleeps next to her son, her only child, and knows the hospital well. Her mother was recently found to have liver cancer and had been hospitalized off and on at Bellevue. For nearly a week in June, her son recuperated on the eighth floor while her mother was treated on the 15th.

Gonpo comes from a family of Tibetan immigrants who have known both success and struggle. Ms. Nordon's sister is Yungchen Lhamo, one of the world's most popular Tibetan singers. Ms. Lhamo, who shares an apartment with Ms. Nordon in Sunnyside, records for Real World Records. Ms. Nordon cleans hotel rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn Times Square on Eighth Avenue, but she has not returned to work since her son was injured. Gonpo cannot walk. He is in stable condition as he waits for both plastic and orthopedic surgeries next week, said Dr. Lori Legano, one of Gonpo's doctors.

Ms. Nordon worries about the bills and health insurance. She said she is unsure, since her son just arrived in New York, if her health insurance will cover his medical bills. Her mother, she said, does not have insurance. A fund has been established in Gonpo's name to help the family with medical and other expenses (The Gonpo Dorjee Fund, P.O. Box 716,  Lake Katrine, N.Y. 12449).