C. Falls teen making 'great strides' after injury

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Alex Becker, the 13-year-old Columbia Falls boy hit by a pickup March 1 on U.S. 2 as he walked to school, surprised his mother by his rate of recovery at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula this week.

Despite punctured lungs, fractured skull and ribs, torn spleen, broken pelvic bones, separated sacral bone and fractured bones at the base of the skull, Alex stood on the leg with the least-damaged pelvic bone for a few seconds Monday.

He also said a few words - enough to order a chocolate shake.

"He made great strides yesterday," Cheryl Becker said Monday.

She said doctors took him off his ventilator Sunday morning and removed his oxygen mask Sunday afternoon.

"He's breathing 100 percent on his own. He's hurting, but his lungs stayed inflated after they took him off the ventilator," she said.

Doctors clamped off the tubes to Alex's chest Sunday, then, after his lungs began functioning on their own, removed the tubes Monday.

"They are trying to get him up on the leg that will bear some weight," Becker said. "It's just a matter of how much of the pain he can stand."

She said they are looking at a couple months' recovery. A physical-rehabilitation assessment was being done Monday, to give an idea of what can be done for him during and after the fractures heal.

Alex remains in St. Pat's intensive-care unit. Becker said he will be moved to a regular hospital room for four to 10 days, then will go to rehabilitation.

"If it goes fast," she said, "he could go to a center in Kalispell for rehab or he could go home."

For now, she's hanging tough as she watches her son in pain. She spends most of her time at the hospital, then rents a room at St. Patrick House with her sister, Cindy Delay of Hungry Horse, at night.

"I have had to just put it away from me, put things two feet away from me," she said, "because I don't want to be standing there with tears in my face when he opens his eyes and looks at me."

She said people across the United States called churches and activated prayer chains for Alex after the accident. And "a friend of a friend of a friend" passed it along to a family member who is fighting in Iraq.

"That Iraq soldier got his like-minded comrades to get down on their knees and pray," Becker said. "So this is going around the world."

She is grateful for the immediate response that day on the highway - one person provided a blanket, others covered him with their coats.

"I don't even know how to thank them. I appreciate the way people responded, and kept it going until he could get what he needed," she said. "I do have two coats and a blanket at my house for people to come and pick up."

State disability insurance is covering Alex's medical expenses, but costs of the Missoula stay and her own medical issues are mounting.

Anybody who would like to send a note to Alex, who turns 14 on March 30, is encouraged to mail Alex Becker, Attn: Cheryl Becker, St. Patrick House, 501 W. Alder, Missoula, MT 59802.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com