Woman home from hospital stay gets warm welcome

By Jean Reid Norman

Monday, Aug. 31, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Brianne Perkins came home to Boulder City Saturday with an escort of six police cars and two ambulances that stopped traffic from Railroad Pass to her home on Sunrise Circle.

For a block before her house, yellow ribbons and welcome home signs adorned a fence along Bristlecone Drive. More greeted her at the two-story brick house.

Once she stepped into her house, she moved into the master bedroom downstairs – the one with the fireplace and oversized bathtub. Her father, Jim Perkins, moved upstairs to allow her to share it with her mother, her primary caretaker.

“I’m getting spoiled,” said the 21-year-old Boulder City High School graduate who nearly died in April after a crash on Interstate 70 while on her way to her grandparents’ house.

She survived injuries that her father, a retired paramedic, said are usually fatal. Not only did she survive, but doctors say she could fully recover and walk again.

Progress since the April 11 crash has been steady, said her mother, police dispatcher Ruby Perkins. Her daughter was able to come off a ventilator in July, and a halo that held her head in place has been removed. The internal injuries that nearly killed her have healed, and now she is home to continue her recovery.

“She’s so happy to be back,” Ruby Perkins said.

Brianne Perkins visited Sunday with the community that had kept her in its prayers. During an open house to welcome her home, scores of friends, family members and neighbors stopped by to see what her aunt Marla McClintock of Henderson called “our miracle.”

Sitting in her motorized wheelchair with her companion dog, a teacup Yorkshire terrier named Izzy in her lap, the young woman said she didn’t cry when she saw her home after being hospitalized for the past four months.

“I was too happy,” she said. “I was smiling. I couldn’t stop smiling. It’s wonderful.”

She remains paralyzed from the shoulders down, she said, but she often feels tingling in her limbs – the type often felt when a muscle has fallen asleep. Her legs also have frequent spasms, which helps maintain muscle tone, she said. And her neck, which has some numbness, is getting stronger daily.

She will continue physical therapy both at home and at local clinics, her mother said.

And she is still planning to resume the life that was interrupted. She and her fiancé, who was with her when she was hit by a car while they were pulled over to help a stranded motorist, were supposed to get married June 18 and go to law school together this fall at Gonzaga University. Southern Utah University allowed her to graduate – her sister Tessie walked for her – and Gonzaga is holding her admission and financial awards.

Fiance Eric Nay, who was by her side through most of the hospital stay, has gone to Brigham Young University for a master’s degree in business for now. They will still get married and go to law school together, Brianne Perkins said. Just not yet.

“This has added a new dynamic to our relationship,” she said. “It has kind of strengthened us. It shows what we can overcome together. It changed all of our plans, but it has shown that we can adapt together.”

After more than an hour of visiting with well-wishers, she started to get tired, but she continued to talk quietly and smile as the friends came.

That was a smile he saw from the first days in the hospital, said her grandfather Earvan Coburn of Richfield, Utah, whom she was going to visit when the crash occurred.

“I don’t know how she can always have that pretty smile for you, as bad as she was injured,” he said. “That she was able to come through it all is beyond belief.”