Nick Naugle was never so happy to see his dorm room when he returned Wednesday to Biever Hall. He’d spent nearly a month at Touro Infirmary recovering from his Oct. 9 collision with a streetcar.

“I got home and took a nap – the best nap ever, basically,” he said. “It’s just great to be home and out of the hospital.”

Naugle, general studies freshman, said he was hit after he left Sigma Alpha Kappa’s Welcome to the Jungle party around 11:30 p.m. and waited by himself at the streetcar stop at Carrollton Avenue and Cohn Street. A man approached him and struck up a conversation.

“This guy seemed really nice – he asked what I was waiting for, and I told him that I was just going to take the streetcar back to school. Then someone called me, and while I was on the phone, he grabbed my wallet and ran away,” Naugle said.

Naugle immediately called his father, then the bank to cancel his debit card. He said he was not drunk at the time, but stressed out about the mugging.

“I was buzzed, but not drunk,” Naugle said. “It was dark and raining really hard, and I was wearing dark clothes. I was standing in between the tracks, and from what I’ve gathered, the trolley driver wasn’t paying attention, and I was on the phone.”

The Claiborne-bound streetcar struck Naugle’s left side, knocking him to the ground. He sustained injuries to his temporal lobe, the area of the brain that controls movement, which temporarily paralyzed his left side. Doctors at Charity Hospital performed brain surgery, leaving Nick with 42 staples in his head.

After receiving a phone call from the Rev. Eddie Gros, S.J. dean of University Ministry, Naugle’s mother Yvonne Barbush and his stepfather became desperate for information about their son.

“We couldn’t get a flight out of Harrisburg until Saturday at three,” Barbush said. “We had no idea if he was even alive – the nurse wouldn’t give us any information, except that it was ‘very serious.’ I came down here not knowing if he had all of his body parts.”

Naugle was still unconscious when his parents arrived, although Gros had stayed with him, praying during his surgery.

Barbush has been extremely pleased with the support shown by the university.

“Michelle Andrews with Res Life met us as soon as we arrived,” she said. “The school gave us taxi vouchers and a room in Buddig, which was a wonderful change from the hospital. [History instructor] Judith Hunt, his advisor, has been amazing. We ended up staying at her house.”

She said that people all over the world have been praying for Naugle – in addition to Gros and the Loyola community, a church in Germany has prayed weekly, and a Jewish congregation in Israel planted a tree in celebration of his life. Barbush’s church in Pennsylvania helped to raise the $4,000 in hotel and travel expenses for herself and her husband.

The road to recovery has been slow. Last Friday, Naugle walked for the first time without assistance, and is in the process of learning to write again with his left hand.

“The first time I tried to write with my right hand, it was sad. My signature was like, five inches high, in little kid scrawl,” he said.

But Naugle remains positive about the accident.

“It’s been a learning experience. The Loyola athletic department sends me flowers, and my friend Jess came and visited me every day…. I went to church for the first time on Sunday since I’ve been here,” he said.

According to Naugle, the accident and the month spent in the hospital gave him a greater appreciation of life.

“Basically, life is great. Every moment you have, you should take into the consideration all the people that care about you. You should be happy with everything that’s good. That’s not profound, just common sense,” he said.

Naugle and his mother are not sure what, if any, action they will take against New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.

“There’s no markings of where you should or should not stand, and the streetcars don’t have wiper blades – and this happened on the night that Tropical Storm Matthew came in,” Barbush said. “I was [driving] down that same street [Carrollton] at night when it was raining, and I turned the windshield wipers off, and you couldn’t see anything.”

They have retained a lawyer, but not spoken directly with anyone from the RTA, and do not know the name of the conductor that hit Naugle. RTA officials were unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

Barbush said she plans to stay a few more weeks, to help her son get back into his routine.

“Touro wanted him to stay a few more weeks, but he was just lying in bed for all but an hour or so per day,” she said. “We thought he’d do better here, in his own bed, back on campus, seeing his friends.”

When asked if the accident has permanently affected her son, Barbush stays upbeat.

“He’s a lot more positive, more childlike. Everything is wonderful to him. Mentally, he’s the same person. It’s mostly motor skills,” she said.

Naugle said he has a new outlook on life.

“Life’s a lot like skating – sometime you land a trick, sometimes you fall. But if you can still walk when you go to bed, you always have tomorrow,” he said.

Kelly Brown can be reached at [email protected].