The parents of a Courtenay woman severely injured in a hit and run in the Comox Valley last week are calling the teen who came to her rescue a hero.

Molly Burton, 24, was walking down Comox Road about 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 when she was hit by a vehicle and flung into a thick tangle of bushes far from the street.

article continues below

Unable to move, she called out for hours until a teen, Brody Fullerton, heard her cries from his boat in the river nearby.

Fullerton docked the boat, hopped on his bike and rode for 45 minutes until he found her, then flagged down a passerby to call 911.

“[It was] a real act of courage, a real act of heroism, to contrast the guy who hit her and drove away,” the victim’s father, Ralph Burton, said Tuesday from outside the Victoria General Hospital.

“He was really persistent because she had been knocked quite a distance off the road and abandoned there. It was night, she was cold, face down in the mud, underneath a blackberry bush,” he said.

The car hit Burton on the right side of her body, shattering her right arm and right leg. She has already had two surgeries to her leg with more due in the future, her parents said.

Leslie Wells said her daughter credits Fullerton for keeping her alive.

“Molly is just so struck by the contrast between the evil she encountered that night and the good,” Wells said.

Burton has had a chance to thank Fullerton over the phone but is looking forward to thanking him in person.

On Tuesday, as Burton remained in Victoria General Hospital, she received a call from her older brother Connor, a master corporal serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. Her younger sister Kelly has also visited from Vancouver.

Burton’s parents say she faces months of difficult recovery but she is remaining strong. Burton was looking for work as a travel agent at the time of the accident.

“It’s a huge and really painful interruption in her life,” Ralph Burton said. “Her life is just on hold right now.”

Comox Valley RCMP have identified a 16-year-old as a suspect. He is facing criminal charges of failing to stop at the scene of an accident and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He can’t be named due to provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

kderosa@timescolonist.com