A Happy Homecoming For Logandale Girl

Logandale teen, Carolynn Becker returned home on Friday, July 10, after a month in the hospital. “It feels really good to be back home and close to family and friends again,” Carolynn said.

Becker was critically injured in an automobile accident which occurred June 10 on Interstate 15 in Mesquite. Becker along with three other girls and an adult leader were travelling to southern Utah for a church girls camp when a blowout caused the vehicle to careen out of control and roll over.

In the accident Becker sustained multiple injuries including a broken collarbone, breaks to several left side ribs, multiple pelvis fractures, lacerated spleen, broken wrist, a fractured vertebrae near the top of the neck and serious head trauma. “The biggest concern over time was the brain injury,” said Carolynn’s mother, Anna Becker. “Some of the neural connections had been damaged. They were afraid that there might be some permanent problems from that.”

But over the last month, Carolynn has made a remarkable recovery. “It has been a phenomenal turnaround,” said Anna Becker. “The doctors have said she has made amazing progress and they now expect her to have a 95-100% recovery. It really is a miracle.”

Anna has stayed by her daughter’s side in Las Vegas from the very beginning. For the first two weeks, while Carolynn was at UMC, Anna slept at the Ronald McDonald house in Las Vegas while spending long days at the hospital. The following two weeks were spent in a rehabilitation center with Carolynn.

On Friday, a smiling Carolynn, still wearing a neckbrace, left the rehabilitation center in a wheelchair and returned home to a celebration of family and friends. “We came home exactly one month and three days from the accident,” Anna said. “It is so good to be home with her.”

Carolynn still has some work to do to reach full recovery. After a few days of rest at home, she will begin a tough routine of physical therapy which will go six hours a day for five days a week. “The goal is for her to be able to start her senior year of high school on time with all the other kids,” said Anna.

Anna expressed gratitude to the community for the support her family has received over the difficult month. She talked about community members stepping up and taking care of little day-to-day household details while she was away attending to her daughter. “A lot of the little decisions were just taken out of my hands and people just stepped up and took care of them.”

“I can’t tell you the blessings that our family has received throughout this experience,” she said. “Through this we have learned that we truly live in the best place on earth. We have seen that we have family all around us in this community.”