Teen recovering from head injury

When 18-year-old Daniel “Dano” Busick of Columbia Falls partially opened his eyes Oct. 15 — and when he smiled on Oct. 19 – his family knew he had the will to fight for his life.

“He smiled and it was wonderful,” said Daniel’s father, Matthew.

That smile marked a major step on the road to recovery for Daniel, a 2011 Columbia Falls High School graduate who suffered major head injuries in an accident on Sept. 30.

Daniel spent until Oct. 11 in a medically induced coma and the family endured many tense moments while his survival was tenuous.

 The accident happened when Daniel, his father and his mother, Rebecca, were traveling to a church conference in Salt Lake City.

They were driving on Interstate 15 near Idaho Falls when they stopped on the side of the road at 9:23 p.m. for Daniel to go to the bathroom.

When his son did not return in a few minutes, his dad went to look for him. Matthew found his son had fallen 15 to 20 feet off the roadway onto a bed of rocks.

Daniel was airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. He had sustained a skull fracture, bleeding between the skull and brain, bleeding on the brain, a blood clot and laceration on the back of his head.

What followed for the family was a harrowing month of waiting, praying and believing that Daniel would pull through.

His mother stayed in a fifth-wheel camper in the hospital parking lot while his father traveled back and forth to Kalispell to work at Eisinger Motors.

They stood by as doctors monitored and worked to control pressure inside Daniel’s skull and combat low oxygen levels, a rising body temperature and fluctuating heart rate.

On Oct. 3 his parents received news they had been dreading: Daniel’s brain damage was too severe.

“They told us we needed to get to the hospital and there was nothing else they could do,” Matthew said. “We actually accepted it.”

While his two older sisters, one from Salt Lake and one from California, had visited, Daniel’s older brother — a Marine stationed in Japan — was temporarily reassigned to Idaho to be close to his brother and was due to arrive around 5 p.m. that day.

Daniel was kept on life support.

What happened within the next 45 minutes is what Matthew described as a miracle. The pressure in the youth’s skull stabilized, oxygen levels returned to normal and brain activity returned.

“We didn’t get told until a couple of hours. We were totally shocked. It was unbelievable what they were telling us,” Matthew said.

That was just the start of the improvements.

On Oct. 11 Daniel was slowly taken out of the coma. On Oct. 19 he was taken off a ventilator and by Oct. 23 he walked 90 feet with the help of a walker and two nurses.

On Oct. 25, he began speech therapy and family members wrote on a blog that Daniel was able to answer “Busick,” when a nurse asked what his last name was.

While doctors are unsure about the extent of brain damage, the Busicks are bracing for the day Daniel will be moved out of the intensive care unit and the years of therapy.

“We still don’t know [his prognosis], but the doctor said younger ages, teenagers are pretty remarkable at how they recover,” Matthew said. “We’re optimistic, we just don’t know the outcome.”

Family friends have opened a bank account in Matthew Busick’s name to help the family cover medical expenses, which include the $23,000 airlift immediately following the accident.

Anyone wishing to donate may do so at any Glacier Bank location.

To follow Daniel’s recovery, visit www.danielbusicksjourney.blogspot.com.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.