Rap, she's entitled to go after the bastard, it is likely to be rather therapeutic for her and speaks pages for her recovery. The biggest question may be one of cost, but his lack of consideration put her life at assessible risk and unless she does the best you both can to bring him to real account, putting his liberty at risk, then firstly all other cyclists will be tarred with the same brush and secondly he'll only have his own self-reproach to bear - if any. You've seen your medical insurance take a heavy hit, and all the other costs not associated with it: you should force him to undo the damage as far as possible.
Try taking out some form of attempted murder against him, for starters. Someone rides on the sidewalk, of course he's putting pedestrians at risk, so if the risk crystallised - and that is the nature of risk, sometimes it does - then he takes the lumps, not his victim.