Shopping cart tragedy victim to return to Elliman?

Marion Hedges, the Prudential Douglas Elliman agent who suffered brain damage and the loss of vision in her left eye after a shopping cart was dropped on her at an East Harlem shopping center last October, will return to real estate after her recovery, an associate at Elliman told The Real Deal. According to her co-worker at Elliman, Margarita Barrera, Hedges attended a closing recently for a sale she made before the incident, and will return to work when her injuries permit.

Hedges was in a coma after the occurrence, and reportedly had to relearn her name after regaining consciousness.

“Her seat is here,” said Barrera, of Hedges’ place in the office where the two had worked together before the tragedy. “Douglas Elliman has kept it open for her at all times.”

A spokesperson for Hedges emphasized that she has a “long and arduous road ahead of her,” but confirmed she was interested in one day getting back into the real estate game. “That’s her livelihood,” she said. She also noted that Hedges, widely reported to be a “philanthropist,” is more like an activist and volunteer.

Hedges told news organizations yesterday that she forgives her teenage assailants, one of whom was recently sentenced to a six months in a group home, Graham Windham, in Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N.Y., where he must complete a “treatment and education program.”

The New York Post reported today that Hedges expressed a desire to meet 14-year-old Achilles Baskin of Harlem, who tried to stop the two boys pushing the cart over the side of the parking garage, as revealed in a video unearthed by the New York Post.

Hedges’ life was saved by a medical resident at New York Hospital, who happened to be nearby when the assault occurred, and revived her. A law enforcement source told the New York Post in January that the agent “will never be the same. … She will have cognitive issues.”

The assailants, who were both 12 years old at the time of the incident, showed little remorse and were mainly concerned with how they had been caught, previously published reports indicate. “He’s not your typical 12-year-old kid. He’s pretty street-savvy,” the police source told the Post in January.