Six Months After Being Pinned Between Cab And Tree, Woman Walks Again

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Few have more to be thankful for than one New York woman who survived a devastating car accident and is now able to walk again after nearly losing both of her legs.

Cherie Marcus is busy preparing for the holidays. She's come a long way from six months ago when a cab crashed into her outside Central Park, pinning her to a tree and crushing both of her legs, CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reported.

"Next thing I remember, I was lying flat on the ground," she said.

"I told her in my mind there was probably about a 50 percent chance that she would leave the hospital with at least one amputation," Dr. Tomer Avraham, of Mount Sinai Health System, said.

Over the next two months, Marcus underwent nine complex surgeries at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital to stabilize her legs with metal rods and cover them with tissue.

"We had to take skin and fat from her high, transfer it with its blood supply, connect the small blood vessels under the microscope, and after that, repeated rounds of skin grafting," Avraham said.

Doctors were able to save both of her legs.

"It was horrible, but I'm happy I had so much help to get me through this," Marcus said.

In August, she began using a walker, then a cane.

Now, she can walk around her house and do what she enjoys most: cooking -- just in time for Thanksgiving.

"Sometimes it gets me, you know -- Oh god, why me?" she said. "Most of the time, I'm going to get teary, I'm just grateful that I have my legs and have my feet," Marcus said.

She is thankful for the support of her family and friends as she makes strides in her recovery.

Marcus said she still feels occasional pain, but with continued physical therapy, she hopes to one day return to work as an usher at local theaters.