Rebecca “Becca” Veltum, 6, spent her second weekend back at home during her recovery.
Becca was struck by an automobile and critically injured while crossing Highway 20 on Sept. 6. She was flown to Doernbecker Children’s Hospital and after her condition improved to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland.
She was released for the weekend this week and last week. While at home she must wear a helmet to protect her forehead, where a portion of her skull was temporarily removed. She is active and talking well enough to tease her older brothers.
“She’s going through therapy on getting in and out of the bath tub, walking and dealing with going up and down steps,” her father William Veltum said. “She’s going to school. They have a teacher up there for her. They were helping her get dressed and out of bed.”
At the hospital, she wears an alarm bracelet so nurses can track her.
On Oct. 17, Veltum will take Becca to Doernbecker where doctors will return the front portion of her skull the next day. She is scheduled to return home on Oct. 26.
The front portion of her skull was removed to allow her brain room to swell following the accident. The bone was saved and frozen.
Three weeks ago, Veltum and Becca’s soon-to-be stepmother, Michelle Fox, were visiting.
“I had to put my ear down to hear what she was saying,” Veltum said. A couple of days later, she was talking and active. Since then, she’s been calling on the telephone.
“The chief of police said it was doubtful she would make it through the night,” Veltum said. That’s when Becca underwent surgery to relieve pressure on her brain. Becca also suffered from a keg broken in two places.
Becca is still suffering from traumatic brain injury. She forgets things and has some problems with some motor skills on the right side of her body.
Veltum and Fox knew Becca would be okay after the third day when she awakened and could squeeze her favorite stuffed animal.
She spent a total of two weeks in the intensive care unit.
“We started pulling her around in a wagon with padding and pillows in it,” Veltum said. One day, they decided to go to the cafeteria and discovered Becca was eating solid food again when she started grabbing food off of her parents’ plates.
“I had doubts,” Veltum said. “But then she started doing what she was doing in ICU. It was, ‘Forget everything else and what they were saying because she’s coming back.'”
“It’s the Italian blood on my mother’s side,” Veltum said. “She’s stubborn.”
The accident has affected South Fork Trailer Park, Veltum said. No one is letting their small children cross the road any more, and he is offering to take children to the store when they want candy.
Veltum said he used to let Becca cross the road to Midway Grocery with her stepsister, Britney, 10, all the time.
“It’s like the minister said,” Veltum said. “You can’t be with them all the time. That particular day, Becca came up and asked me if she could go across the street and get some candy. I said that was fine, but you be careful. I was busy fixing some steps in the trailer park.”
Britney told Veltum that the car that hit Becca was quite a ways down the road from South Fork. There are also pedestrian signs near Cedar Shack and the Sweet Home Ranger District office. Along Highway 20 are six of the signs.
With the amount of foot traffic, Veltum said, it’s important that drivers slow down when pedestrians are crossing the street. The South Fork school bus stop also has problems with drivers proceeding past flashing red lights.
When drivers are approaching a pedestrian sign or see people stepping into a bike lane, they should slow down, he said. “Start slowing down and being aware of what’s going on instead of being in an all fired hurry to get some place.”
In any case, “she won’t be doing it again,” Fox said of Becca crossing the highway.
“Pretty much everybody’s seen what Becca’s gone through,” Fox said, and children are not crossing the road, and a bike route that brushed the highway has stopped.