Accident victim on path to recovery

When Emily Berner reached the top of the rock wall at The Summit Medical Fitness Center in Kalispell last month, it meant quite a bit more than just conquering the wall.

It meant reclaiming her life. It meant overcoming the past. It meant hope for the future.

On Dec. 17, 2011, Berner was in a high-speed car accident south of Kalispell while she was a passenger. She woke up 60 days later in an assisted-living home in Tacoma, Washington, unable to move, speak, or even blink.

Her parents thought they had lost her well before she woke from her coma.

“We were told that if she ever woke up, which was unlikely, she’d be a vegetable,” said Inez Berner, Emily’s mother. “If certain things didn’t go the right way, she wouldn’t be here today.”

Last month — just a little over three years after the wreck destroyed her motor skills and changed her life forever — Berner spent nearly an hour painstakingly scaling the rock wall at The Summit.

After her crash, she had a shattered hip, extreme brain trauma, several fractures in her pelvis and a damaged spleen and liver. When she topped the wall, for one brief second, all that was in the past.

“I had a real sense of accomplishment,” Berner said. “I want to do it again, too.”

She was assisted on the wall by Jandy Cox, a longtime rock-climbing teacher and one of Berner’s biggest supporters.

“Emily’s mom recommended she give the wall a shot,” he said. “I was very excited about the possibility, but I was honest with her. I said, ‘I’m not sure how this is going to work.’”

Berner uses a wheelchair to get around and has to focus to walk. She saw the rock wall as not an insurmountable task, but just another challenge to get over.

“I thought, why not?” Berner said. “It’s been a good challenge. It’s a real good workout.”

Cox was happy to help the 21-year-old take a shot at the wall.

“The first time at the wall, I was just inspired by her desire to do something,” he said. “We got her suited up and her first time on the wall was more successful than we could have hoped for.”

Berner has not regained her balance after the crash, so Cox helps keep her center of gravity close to the wall. The two have been working together to scale the wall since November. The first half-dozen times, Berner was stymied by a section of the wall where it steepens, but that’s where Cox joined her to assist the climb.

Her drive to conquer the wall was something Cox admits he hadn’t seen before.

“She has great strength,” he said. “When a person is usually on the wall, they are up for two minutes. She is up there for 20 to 30 minutes. I came down drenched with sweat. If I’m up there whining about how hard it is, think about her challenge. It really puts it in perspective for you.”

When Berner hit the top of the wall in February, there was applause from below and a sense of accomplishment for all the parties, but much more than that.

After the 2011 wreck, not only was rock-climbing not on the agenda, walking and speaking were far-fetched ideas for Berner.

Tom Berner, Emily’s father, will never forget that fateful December day.

“I get a call from her boyfriend’s mom saying the kids have been in a crash,” he said. “It was unbelief this could be happening. It was a frantic effort to figure out what stage you were in. We almost lost her the first couple hours.”

She was flown to Seattle where she spent a month in the intensive care unit. The brain shearing (the brain slamming off the cranium) caused by the wreck made Berner’s brain swell to nearly fatal levels.

Inez escorted her to the airport, but couldn’t fly. She spent a terrified, miserable 12 hours in the terminal waiting for the next flight to Seattle.

“My body shook nonstop,” she said. “When I finally got to the hospital there is the priest standing over her. You don’t prepare for this kind of thing.”

Tom was working a high-paying job in the Bakken. He quit that to come back to his family.

Rehabilitation for Berner went slowly at first. It was a task for her parents to find out just how much she had lost in the crash, as communicating was near impossible.

Even now, speaking is a labored effort. She had to reteach herself how to form words. But she makes herself understood well enough.

The first time she showed up at the track at The Summit, it took her an hour to walk a lap. Berner has trimmed that down now to just 10 minutes. She has lost 50 pounds since last year.

“She can be there for three or four hours,” Inez said. “She works out all the time. People at the Summit come up and talk to her all the time.”

Last December, a man came up to Berner and told her she was his inspiration, wished her Merry Christmas and offered her $100. Another anonymous donor bought her the gym membership for all of 2015.

Besides walking, climbing and stationary biking, Berner has spent time getting back in the pool and riding horses.

The latter is through the Human Therapy on Horseback, Inc., a Whitefish nonprofit which helps those with disabilities with therapeutic horseback riding. That organization can be contacted, and tickets to an upcoming May 2 fundraiser can be purchased, at www.hthflathead.org.

Berner was an avid swimmer before her wreck, so focusing on holding her breath is an important and fun tool she uses in her rehabilitation. Her body’s initial reaction to being underwater was to go into shock. Her body reverted to a childlike state in many ways, and that is forcing her to focus and re-train her once active body.

“It’s really different now,” she said. “It’s a big brain thing to hold my breath now. It’s not as easy.”

When not exercising, Berner spends time working on her artwork at home. A talented sculptor since age 15, her art company keeps her busy and brings in some extra money. Silver Lining Artwork can be found on Facebook.

More information on Berner’s story can be found at www.caringbridge.org/visit/EmilyBerner. The family is raising money to help pay for Emily’s rehabilitation expenses at www.GoFundMe.com/EmilyBerner.

And as for the future?

“I’d like to know too,” Inez said. “But for right now, the sky’s the limit. I don’t want any negativity.”

Hope in tomorrow and getting back to a sense of normal is keeping the family on a set path.

“We take every day for granted when we are healthy,” Tom said. “This may not have been the luckiest thing, but she’s luckier than some. We don’t take the days for granted anymore.”

Reporter Ryan Murray can be reached at 758-4436 or rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.