One day at a time

(Editor’s note: Following is the first installment of a two-part series on the October 2021 auto accident of Nodaway Valley graduate Toby Bower, and his recovery in the past seven months to regain movement and feeling in his legs after a serious spinal injury.)

FONTANELLE — Toby Bower realizes more than most of us that your path in life can hit a detour in an instant.

The former Nodaway Valley standout runner and basketball player was less than three months into his career of construction work on a Tuesday morning last October. Each day, he made the 45-minute drive from his family home near Fontanelle to PLS Builders, based south of Winterset.

His boss, Dennis Downing, knew Bower’s instructor from his Southwestern Community College construction classes, Kyle Harvey. While honing his skills on the job, Bower hoped he could learn the business side from Downing and someday be a general contractor calling the shots and hiring crews. This was the perfect starting point as an active 18-year-old.

On the morning of Oct. 19, Downing became concerned at about 6:55 a.m. when Bower hadn’t arrived yet. Bower was normally 15 minutes early for his 7 a.m. arrival, despite the long commute. Downing tried unsuccessfully to call Bower’s cell phone.

“I could feel my phone vibrating below my foot,” Bower said. “My phone is connected to my (Apple) watch, and I could tell I was getting a call. But that’s about all I remember until I saw some people around me kind of freaking out, saying they needed to call an ambulance.”

Bower had been listening to a podcast while driving with the cruise control set on 60 mph in his 2011 Ford Fusion. He was eastbound near Zion on 310th Street when he fell asleep.

High-speed crash

With the cruise control still engaged, the car careened across the road and into the north side ditch. The car hit a utility pole guy wire and ramped up at a gravel road intersection before coming to rest in a field on its left side. Despite wearing his seat belt, Bower was partially hanging outside the driver’s side window. Fortunately, the car was not quite fully on its left side, resting at an angle, or Bower would have been crushed.

Toby’s father, Mark Bower, received a call at work but at first ignored it as an unknown number. When he subsequently answered another call, he was told by law enforcement that his son had been in an accident and was being taken by Life Flight to Des Moines.

Toby Bower called out the name of a friend, Greenfield EMT Casey Larson, as attempts were made to carefully remove him from the vehicle. Because the steering wheel had been pushed down against him, attempts to extract him through the windshield opening weren’t working. Finally, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound former star athlete was pulled out through the sun roof opening. The air ambulance had landed on the road to take him to Iowa Methodist Medical Center.

“I didn’t have a single scratch except for seatbelt rash,” Bower said. “But my L1 vertebrae in my spinal cord had been shattered. I guess it was just from the impact. I woke up in the hospital ER and my girlfriend, Madi Berleau, was there.”

Meanwhile, parents Mark and Tara Bower were frantically on their way to Des Moines, still not fully aware of their son’s circumstances.

“We knew he was alive and could move his left foot on command, from what we were told,” Tara Bower said. “We really didn’t know what we would find when we got there.”

Sobering diagnosis

A hospital chaplain greeted them on their arrival. An ER doctor told them that Toby may never have any feeling below the waist or walk again. Later, a surgeon surmised that nerves may have been severed in addition to the vertebrae damage.

After surgery was performed Friday, the first signs of optimism emerged. While there were severely damaged nerves, none were completed cut. There was a chance for healing and restoration of signals from the brain to his muscles for more movement than originally expected.

Two rods and 13 screws were part of the repair of Toby’s shattered L1 vertebrae. His therapy at Iowa Methodist focused on being able to sit up so he could begin inpatient therapy at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Bower worked on sitting up in a Geri Chair, a recliner designed to assist patients with mobility issues. He wore a brace around his torso to facilitate the healing process.

“It was hard to sit up at first after lying in bed for two weeks, and I had some blood pressure issues associated with being down so long,” Bower said. “But, once I could sit up, and I could move my right foot a little bit, I thought that’s a start.”

Having been through the daily grind of a distance runner and basketball player for Hall of Fame coach Darrell Burmeister at Nodaway Valley, Bower embraced the work ahead. Mentally, he had not accepted a fate of being in a wheelchair for life. He was determined to learn how to walk again and get back on track for his vocational goals.

Return to NV

Near the end of his inpatient work at Madonna, Bower visited a Nodaway Valley basketball game in December. In his wheelchair, he went into the practice gym where he had taken thousands of shots, honing his skills. It was an emotional moment. He took some shots from his wheelchair.

By then, however, he had wa

lked a few steps in his rehab program, and was convinced he’d someday take those shots while upright. Another inspiration that night was having his picture taken with Atlantic graduate Steele McLaren, who had recovered at the Omaha Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital from a brain injury.

McLaren was seriously injured Oct. 25, 2020, when he fell out of the bed of a pickup, striking his head on the pavement while trying to move a duck blind near Anita.

“At Madonna their goal is to get you as independent as possible, and Steele had made a great recovery after his accident,” Bower said. “He told me to continue working, and I would keep improving, too.”

A GoFundMe account was established and another account for donations was set up at a local bank to help defray medical expenses. Athletes from area schools showed their support in a variety of gestures.

“I just thought, if they can take the time to think about me and pray about me and give money and food and everything, then it’s my job to work as hard as I can,” Bower stated in a class article written by Nodaway Valley graduate Naomi Daugherty, a student at Northwest Missouri State University. “That was my perspective on it. Why can’t I work as hard as I possibly can if they’re giving me everything that I need right now?”

It was an emotional Mother’s Day weekend for Tara Bower. Her sister, Tanja Wiggins of Greenfield, underwent a successful liver transplant in January, right after Toby was discharged from inpatient car

e at Madonna. It’s been a stressful year in the family.

“I was just thinking how blessed we are, that we’re healthy and all together on Mother’s Day,” Tara Bower said. “It could have been so much different than how it turned out. Toby’s nerve connections just keep being made from his legs up to his brain, and he’s making progress. Things are still healing and we’re grateful for that.”

(Tuesday: Toby Bower worked diligently on his recovery at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital for several months. He now continues therapy at Cass Health Rehabilitation Services in Atlantic, and plans to begin classes next fall at Des Moines Area Community College.)