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Accident survivor perseveres
In her spare time, University of Montana student Becky Linnell shops for new cars. She has her eye on a Dodge quad cab, fully loaded. “I like cars with power,” she said. A fondness for cars runs in her family, and it played a part in an incident that altered their lives.
In 1999, Linnell and her family piled into her 1990 Grand Prix, twin turbo with red leather interior, to go to the Hot August Nights car show in Reno, Nev. While driving down Highway 90 near St. Ignatius, they were hit by another vehicle. Her father was killed in the accident, and her mother and brother were injured.
Linnell, who is now 24, sustained a traumatic brain injury and was unconscious for two weeks. Doctors didn’t think she’d wake up, much less graduate from college and enroll in graduate school. But she’ll finish her master’s in business administration in May. “Them not thinking I could do it pushed me to finish,” she said. “I proved them all wrong.”
The Brain Injury Association of Montana, which has an office in Missoula, defines a traumatic brain injury as an “insult to the brain.” They can be caused by a blow to the head, insufficient oxygen or infection and can result in impaired cognitive or physical abilities. Each brain injury is unique, said Alicia Kosmann, a University of Montana student who works for the non-profit association.
“It depends on how severe the injury is, what caused it and especially on what part of the brain was injured,” she said. “Each person handles it differently.”
Montana has the second-highest rate of traumatic brain injuries per capita in the United States, second only to Wyoming. Annually, 1.5 million people will sustain a traumatic brain injury. Vehicle crashes are the leading cause, and college-age people are often involved, Kosmann said. “Kids our age are crazier,” she said.
Linnell’s family wasn’t to blame for the accident. They were overrun at a cross street by a farm truck that didn’t have brake fluid. A 12-year-old boy was driving the truck. But Linnell has had to overcome many obstacles in her recovery. The accident happened the summer after she graduated from high school in Sunburst, a small town located near the Canadian border. Her father, Dave, worked as an immigration officer, and her mother still works as a high school teacher. Linnell doesn’t remember the accident. Her brother was driving, and she was asleep in the backseat. She was resuscitated at the scene and rushed to the Ronan emergency room for a tracheotomy. She was later transferred to the intensive care unit at St. Patrick Hospital, where she remained for more than two weeks in an unconscious state. Because of the brain injury, she woke up without the ability to do basic things like stand and walk — she didn’t remember how.
“I was like a 6-month-old baby,” she said. She was moved to Community Medical Center, where she underwent multiple sessions of therapy. It’s also where she learned why she was in the hospital, and that her father had been killed. “Towards the end they told me about my dad,” she said. “I didn’t even know there was a car wreck until then.”
She completed therapy to relearn everyday tasks like doing laundry, cooking and cleaning. All recall was gone. Linnell’s mother, Nancy, said that her daughter’s brain injury is unique because it affected more than one section of the brain.
“She was bounced around, and many parts were affected,” she said. Her daughter was an in-patient at St. Patrick Hospital for three months but continued outpatient therapy for a full year. When fall of 2000 came around, she enrolled at Montana Tech in Butte. At least two doctors told her that she wouldn’t be able to attend college, but she fought them, Nancy Linnell said.
“If someone tells her she can’t do something, she’s pretty determined,” she said. Her daughter enrolled as a full-time student and scored high marks. It was a lot of work, but she graduated and moved to Missoula last year to complete her master’s degree in business. “School’s always been super easy for me. I never had to study, but I do now,” Becky Linnell said. “I forget things like no other. I can’t cram anymore. That’s a bummer.”
She still experiences symptoms of the brain injury. She struggles with her equilibrium when she is tired and stressed, but exercise, like dance and Pilates, helps. Her voice also lowers about two octaves below normal when she tires — a result of the tracheotomy. Finally, she experiences seizures. But she can control them.
“You would never know I was having a seizure,” she says. “I feel them starting and my head will shake, but they’re nothing bad.” Linnell’s mother said that she lost much of her sense of smell. “She still loves to wear perfume,” she said. “She knows what she liked before.”
Support plays a large role in recovery, and she said that many of her daughter’s friends who she played basketball with in high school would visit her every day while she was in the hospital. “I think that made such a difference knowing that people were pulling for her,” she said.
She was impressed with a comment Becky recently made that reflects her positive personality. “She said she gets tired of people whining and complaining about what a tough time they have,” Nancy Linnell said. “Instead they should look at what they do have and go from there.”
Joe Prebich, a friend who works with her at an apartment complex in Missoula, said, someone would never guess everything she’s been through. “She comes off as a regular girl who bounces around, wears pink and giggles a bunch,” said Prebich, a University of Montana student. “She could have been lamentive ... very gray skies. But she’s colorful.”