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MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) — Drake and Linda Earl don't remember much about the day they were hit by a car, but the injuries are still with them.
On Aug. 26, 63-year-old Linda and her 10-year-old grandson Drake were leaving the Corn Palace Festival on Main Street, where they just purchased a season pass for Drake, The Daily Republic (http://bit.ly/29Vi4qA ) reported.
As the Earls walked across the intersection of East Third Avenue and North Lawler Street in Mitchell, a 76-year-old woman hit them with her car.
Drake was driven over.
Linda hit the hood of the car and was thrown 30 feet after the driver first accelerated and then slammed on her brakes. That was 10 months ago.
Now, many hospital visits later, the Earl family is putting that "life-changing" day behind them.
Drake and Linda were airlifted to a Sioux Falls hospital shortly after the accident. Drake was in the hospital for two-and-a-half weeks with severe abdominal injuries and several broken bones. Drake's mother, Mallory, said the doctors were afraid he might lose his spleen and part of his liver. He didn't, but he still had a broken nose, a fractured shoulder blade, fractured wrist, fractured pelvis and tailbone.
Linda suffered from traumatic brain injury and broken bones in "many, many places" in her left leg. She also had a broken tibia.
And this was only the beginning.
"They basically told us neither one of them would be here," Mallory said, remembering the first few days Drake and Linda were in the hospital.
For the next few days after the accident, Drake was in the Intensive Care Unit on a ventilator. He also had his chest vaccummed, and several drains running out of his body -- which was the worst part of it, Drake said.
After leaving the hospital two-and-a-half weeks later, Drake spent the next month and half recovering at home and learning how to walk again.
The Earls look back at the time now with smile on their face, remembering the worst is over and Drake is OK.
"He looked like a little 90-year-old man walking, didn't you?" Mallory said with a laugh.
But there was one person Drake, and the entire Earl clan, kept worrying about -- Linda.
She sustained the worst injuries.
Linda's husband, Jack, said the doctor didn't give Linda much hope. She was lying in the hospital bed in a coma. There was no brain activity, Jack said.
Jack said for the next few days, their pastor and his wife at the Mitchell Wesleyan Church came by the hospital and prayed for Linda. Others came to pray, too.
"They kept praying over her," Jack said. "And they asked if they could sing. It was pretty touching."
Jack said they all started singing hymns. It was then that Linda moved her hand and pulled it up over her heart. Jack said the pastor responded by saying "We just saw a miracle here."
Linda responded and the waiting was over.
After that, Linda was on the move to other rehabilitation facilities.
Linda spent two weeks at Avera in Sioux Falls before being transferred to Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls to a specialty area. She was only there for maybe 10 days, Jack said, before being sent to a rehabilitation center specializing in brain injuries called On With Life in Ankeny, Iowa.
This was one of the hardest parts, Jack said, because of a four-hour drive. Linda had a portion of her skull removed and a "big cage" around her left leg, because it was broken in many places. But she traveled to Akeny in this condition, and Jack stayed right with her.
Linda remained in Akeny until mid-December. She wasn't progressing as fast as she should, and insurance was no longer going to pay for her stay. Jack said he couldn't afford to keep her there, so they were in a panic trying to find a place for her to go.
They called their family doctor, the late Mark Reynen, for help. He was able to get her into Avera Queen of Peace in Mitchell for a short amount of time. She was then discharged to the Salem Nursing Home. She was only there for a brief time, before Jack decided to bring her home.
"We brought her home, but she wasn't in very good shape to be at home here," Jack said. "But we took care of her."
By mid-January, she was accepted into the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska. She spent the next few months in rehab. Toward the end of her stay, she had surgery to put the piece of her skull back in. Unfortunately, the piece had shrunk after being frozen for nearly eight months. When they first put it back in, Linda was in a lot of pain, Jack said.
She also had her feeding tube removed and a few days later she was back in her home in Mitchell by the end of March.
"I'm just grateful they're both still with us here today," Mallory said. "That's all I am glad about. There was a very real chance that neither one of them would be here today."
Even with all of Linda's injuries, there was one repercussion that outweighs the rest -- her loss of memory.
Jack said her memory was affected pretty badly. She doesn't remember her six children being born or when Drake was a baby. She also had forgotten her parents died, and she went through the grieving process all over again, Jack said.
"It kind of gets to her," Jack said.
But it's slowly returning each day. Part of her daily routine is to name each of her six kids. So everyday Linda works hard to name Danelle, Laura, Aaron, Chris, Bryan and Mike. She'll even name Aaron's good friend Alex, who they like to call their "adopted" son, Jack said.
"Everything's going to be OK," he said.
Drake is doing better, too. After two months of recovering at home, Drake was able to return to school by October last year.
But the soon-to-be fifth-grader is still reminded of his crash each day.
Drake has a lot of scars, and he's still working on his endurance, which is not what it used to be.
In August, Drake will be celebrating his 11th birthday and the Earl family is going all out with a renaissance-themed party.
"We're going to have a big party this year, because I'm glad he's here to celebrate his 11th birthday," Mallory said.
Even in a wheelchair, Linda is going to be there. Drake likes swords and knights, and she has already challenged her grandson to a sword fight.
"Should we have a sword fight? I can probably do that. This one's working pretty good," Linda said, referring to her right arm.
Mallory said Drake and Linda have always been close. Before the accident, they had sleepovers almost every Saturday night.
"Pretty much when you saw Linda, you saw Drake," Mallory said.
The hardest part for the two, according to Mallory, was going from seeing one another almost everyday, to not seeing each other for long periods of time after the accident.
But according to Linda, her bad memory couldn't stop her from remembering Drake right away.
"Oh yeah, I could never forget my Drake," Linda said. " ... Out of all my grandkids, he's my favorite."
The Earls said one of the things that helped their family get through the accident and the long recovery was the support of the community and their church.
After the accident, Mallory started an online fundraiser on GoFundMe that raised more than $15,000. And the fundraising didn't end there.
At the end of September, the Earl's church held a free-will donation lunch where a total of $8,500 was raised. Modern Woodmen of America gave an additional $2,500, topping it at $11,000.
"People are so good," Jack said. "I can't say enough for the support."
To afford the many hospital bills and gas costs, they sold a few things and rearranged the financing, Jack said, but now they're going to be OK.
It all comes back to the church and the community. Several area churches, not just the Earl's family church at Mitchell Wesleyan, prayed for the family. Mallory said she heard there were prayer chains across the country.
"If we didn't have the church, I don't know what we would have done," Linda said.
The community strongly supported the Earl family, too.
Not quite a month after the accident, the Mitchell traffic commission approved the addition of two stop signs at the East Third Avenue and North Lawler Street intersection. This came when several businesses in the area approached the commission after the Earl's accident.
One of these was Hank Kor, of Bonnie's dèKor.
Kor said in a recent interview with The Daily Republic that cars were coming down the street too fast, making the intersection dangerous to cross.
"After the accident there, I said we had to do something about it," Kor said.
Kor said he did not know the Earls and still has not met them, but he received many positive comments about getting the stop signs put in the intersection.
"Now, it's a much safer intersection," Kor said.
The Earls are glad there are additional stop signs at this intersection, but they still avoid the street as much as possible.
"If I have to stop there, it's just like I see it in my head." Mallory said. "I don't go down that street."
Mallory said the accident is now behind them and they continue to look forward to what's next. With both Drake and Linda in better health, they are getting active again.
Jack said he and Linda will be making a trip to Rapid City in the near future, so Linda can see family. They also plan to take many small trips, including an upcoming trip to De Smet to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit.
Taking trips with his grandma was Drake's favorite and both he and Linda hope they can get back to taking adventures someday.
"We have fun, don't we Drake?" Linda said. "And we will again soon."
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Information from: The Daily Republic, http://www.mitchellrepublic.com
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