Rebecca Spitz, 31, was struck in the head by the van's mirror as she filed a story from the spot where sanitation workers discovered the body of a newborn baby girl in their garbage truck.
She was unconscious at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital last night as family and friends - including Mayor Bloomberg - came to her bedside in hope she would pull through.
"I'm proud of my sister and that her work has brought out so many people who care about her," said Jake Spitz, her brother. "But I just want my sister back."
Rebecca was standing just off the curb at West 121st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue around 2 p.m. when a red van knocked her to the ground.
Police said the woman driving the van was not given a ticket and did not appear to be speeding.
At St. Luke's last night, Spitz was breathing with the help of a respirator. She's scheduled to undergo a CAT scan today.
NY1 staffers were reeling over the accident.
"We're all really upset," said one reporter. "I saw her and she was laughing and acting sweet like she always does. You just never know."
Spitz, who recently became engaged while vacationing in Ireland, joined NY1 as an intern in 1993 after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with an English degree.
Before becoming an NY1 reporter, Spitz, a native New Yorker, worked at the station as a writer and producer.
Spitz was in Harlem covering two sanitation workers' gruesome discovery of a dead newborn in their garbage truck.
The workers found the body around 9 a.m. as they were collecting trash near West 120th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.
The workers spotted the infant's arm poking through two bags of garbage. Cops said the baby still had its umbilical cord attached.
Witness Ernest Collins said the workers first thought it was a doll.
"The sanitation guy wanted to see, was this a doll, or really a baby," said Collins. "So he poked it with a stick and he goes, 'No, this is human skin there. This is a human.' "
