Becca shines: Gardnerville girl hit by car in August returns to her studies

Miracles happen. Becca shines. These were the catchphrases for the many fundraisers and benefits that aided a Carson Valley family in their time of need, in the time it took 11-year-old Rebecca Martin to return home after being struck by a car in Southern California on Aug. 13.

Becca shines. She shines as she sits on the couch of her Gardnerville Ranchos home petting her tawny-colored cat JoJo, named after one of her beloved Jonas brothers. She shines with a sharp, uncontrollable smile that parts the rosy color of her cheeks and underscores the intense brightness of her eyes.

She's a fashionable sixth-grader, Becca Martin, wearing a checkered plaid shirt, blue jeans and stylish Converse shoes. Four days a week, she visits nearby Meneley Elementary School, after school hours, to study with teacher Kerrie Badalucco.

But that's later in the day. Now, she laughs and tells stories with her mother Sabrina Martin.

In fact, she's so charming that a stranger might mistake the white band around her neck for some fashionable accessory, not the tracheotomy that helps her breath, not the lasting remnant of a harrowing drama she and her family have endured the last six months.

"Falling asleep with the cap on, I have to take it off," Becca explains while rubbing the small cap protruding from the front of the device.

It helps her breathe, she says, but it also hampers her singing. She wants to sing. The star of community productions like "Godspell" and "Snow White," Becca wants so badly to sing. But her mother says her vocal chords need to heal.

"It (singing) is still in her blood," Sabrina says.

She says Becca, who has been home since December, will be returning to Southern California at the end of March for an evaluation.

"They're going to check the airway," Sabrina says. "If it's 70 percent open or more, and hasn't closed back up, they can remove the trache. The scary part is if she doesn't have the trache in for back up, and then something prevents her from breathing."

Sabrina says she and husband Shane consider Becca their "miracle."

"In January, we went back for a follow-up and visited all the doctors," Sabrina says. "They saw her walking in and talking to everyone, and said she's recovered so well. They had tears in their eyes. Her neurologist just had this amazed look in his eyes, kind of like saying, 'We just don't know anything about the brain.'"

The word "miracle" is often used to attribute human events to divine intervention, but, as Sabrina will tell you, no other word better describes Becca's incredible recovery.

On Aug. 13 in Eagle Rock, Calif., Becca was crossing the street with her grandmother when a distracted motorist going more than 30 mph struck her in the crosswalk. The impact knocked Becca 15-20 feet in the air before she landed on the hood of the vehicle. She was transported to the University of Southern California Medical Center with a fractured pelvis, bruised lungs and a serious brain injury.

For nearly a month, Becca was in an induced coma. For two weeks after that, she lived in a semi-conscious, unresponsive state.

Not without pain, Sabrina recalls the diagnosis.

"The original diagnosis was a diffuse axonal injury." she said. "Her brain had basically ricocheted against her skull, and the neurons were dying. There was a 90 percent chance she would remain in a vegetative state."

At first, Sabrina said, she couldn't bear to watch her daughter suffer.

"Those first few weeks, I was praying for God to take her," she said. "She had staph infections and a high fever and pneumonia, and I couldn't bear to watch it."

But then came signs of recovery - Becca's body slowly beating pneumonia, her eyes cracking open, her hands moving.

"It was our wedding anniversary, Sept. 21," Sabrina remembers.

She said doctors asked Becca to hold up one finger if she could understand them. Because she's right-handed, she was instructed to use her right hand.

"Her fingers had started moving a couple days before, so we were all staring at that hand," Sabrina says. "All of a sudden, my eyes swept over to her left hand, and it was just lying there with one finger straight up. The doctors looked up and moved over to the other side and said, 'All right, Becca,' and they asked her to put two, three, four and five fingers up ... and she did. Then all the doctors were coming in to see her."

By the end of September, Becca had improved so much that she was transferred to the Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center in Downey, Calif.

"About a week after she got there, she started walking for the first time," Sabrina says.

"It was the best place ever. It had the best people," Becca says. "I remember the therapies, and I remember the food was good."

After weeks on a feeding tube, Becca was glad to eat pancakes, casseroles and mashed potatoes.

"I told my sister Victoria that the food was good," Becca says, "and she was like, 'what?'"

By mid-December, Becca was well enough to come home. Before Christmas, she attended Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School's production of "Scrooge the Musical," where she was able to meet with friends from the theater group. Then the new year brought parties with classmates and trips to Reno with sister Victoria, who's also involved in theater.

"We went shopping at the mall," Becca says. "The mall is cool."

But Becca also has had plenty of work to do. She has physical therapy twice a week, speech therapy at Carson Valley Medical Center, and, of course, a ton of homework.

"We're learning about Roman gods, and math and spelling," Becca says.

Sabrina says doctors wanted Becca home-schooled during the flu season, but that the after-hour site visits help motivate her.

"It's worked out so good," Sabrina says. "She gets out of the house and can see her friends and participate in school."

Both mother and daughter said that Becca's miracle couldn't have been possible without the community's support.

"What can you say?" Sabrina says. "When something like this happens, the community all comes together. It's amazing and breath-taking."

"It's awesome," Becca adds.

"We relied so much on faith," Sabrina says. "Everybody in the whole community was praying, and then they were posting their prayers on Facebook. People in other countries, in Australia, Canada, Venezuela, they started praying, too. I guess God finally said, 'Enough!' He said, 'I keep hearing about Becca Martin, and it's time to wake her up.'"

Sabrina looks over at the daughter she calls a hero.

"God had another plan for her, and here she is," the mother says.

When she calls Becca sassy and theatrical in her retelling of events, Becca looks back at her mom.

"I take after you," Becca says, shining.