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Girl Injured In Fatal Crosstown Crash Faces More Surgery

Photo provided by family of Summer Moll

Summer remains cheerful, wearing a pair of glasses with a rubber nose attached for the doctors and calling the bonnet of gauze on her head "snow".

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 21, 2009

Updated: 02/21/2009 03:19 pm

TAMPA - The survivor of a drunken-driving crash on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway is facing a serious surgery and a custody battle, her grandmother said Saturday.

Five-year-old Summer Moll went home with her maternal grandparents last month after enduring multiple operations, casts on her arms, a brace on her neck and pins in both legs at Tampa General Hospital.

The child lost her mother, Jennifer O'Boyle, in September after Cheryl Maria Riemann, 26, of Ruskin smashed head-on into O'Boyle's vehicle while driving the wrong way on the lower portion of the expressway, police said. Riemann is awating trial on DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges.

Today, grandmother Tammy Rosian offered to speak to reporters outside the hospital, where Summer returned this week after doctors discovered an infection beneath a plate put in her head.

Rosian said Summer appeared to have gone through the worst when she was discharged last month. Her family celebrated her birthday at Disney World.

Then doctors discovered the infection Feb. 17 during a routine exam. They operated on the child Friday.

"We've had a lot of news and that was a lot to take. I myself went two days without sleep," Rosian said. "It's nobody's fault. It's just that her body can heal so much at a time."

A surgery scheduled for Tuesday will transfer muscle from Summer's back to her head so doctors can try a new skin graft, Rosian said. "This is going to be the most crucial surgery she has had."

Summer remains cheerful, wearing a pair of glasses with a rubber nose attached for the doctors and calling the bonnet of gauze on her head "snow," Rosian said. She promptly asked for a McDonald's hamburger after surgery on Friday.

Summer's father, Joshua Moll, visited his daughter in the hospital, Rosian said.

Rosian criticized the child's father for his recent drunk-driving arrest.

Tampa police arrested him Feb. 17 on a misdemeanor drunk driving charge. He is free on $500 bail, jail records show.

Rosian at first said Moll's arrest was "something he has to deal with," then broke down.

"I'm upset. This is what put her there," she said of drunk driving. "People just need to think. … It disgusts me."

Moll and the Rosians are facing a custody dispute in the coming months. Rosian said Summer needs her father in her life, but "she's not going to be put in a predicament where she's gonna be in a car with a drunk driver. That's not gonna happen."

Rosian also said she was distressed by an advertisement posted Jan. 29 on Craigslist, touting $10 tickets raffling a week's stay at a Clearwater vacation condo. The ad says the proceeds will benefit Summer, but Rosian said, "We don't know anything about it."

Rosian said her lawyer contacted the phone number in the ad on Friday and received a vague response. "We're trying to get that pulled off of Craigslist," she said.

The woman who placed the ad, who identified herself only as Cynthia said Saturday afternoon she did not realize she needed the family's permission before organizing any fund-raiser. She said she did not know the family but her heart went out to Summer after hearing her story.

"There were no bad intentions on my part," Cynthia said. "That's horrific to think anyone would use her granddaughter to benefit themselves."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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