Woman injured while aiding crash victims hopes for full recovery

By Jean Reid Norman

Thursday, May 14, 2009 | 1:40 p.m.

From a hospital bed in Provo, Utah, Boulder City resident Brianne Perkins graduated summa cum laude May 2 from Southern Utah University.

Her sister Tessie, 20, stood in for the 21-year-old criminal justice major, who was recovering from critical injuries she suffered in a car crash three weeks earlier.

Brianne Perkins and her fiance, Eric Nay, were heading from Cedar City, Utah, where they attend school at SUU, to Richfield, Utah, April 11 to visit her grandfather. Interstate 70 was icy, and about 10:30 a.m. they saw a crash involving an elderly couple at the side of the freeway and stopped to help, her father, Jim Perkins, said.

While Nay was helping the elderly couple, Brianne Perkins was at their Toyota Scion getting a coat. A Nissan Xterra driven by Megan Anderson, 21, began hydroplaning on the road and hit her, then the car, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Brianne Perkins broke five vertebrae in her neck, suffered fractures in her back and internal injuries, said her father, a retired Clark County Fire Department paramedic. She was paralyzed from the neck down but doctors are optimistic that no permanent damage was done and that she will have a full recovery, Jim Perkins said.

She was moved on May 13 to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., for rehabilitation.

Her mother, Boulder City Police dispatcher Ruby Perkins, and sister Tessie flew to Provo by private plane and arrived at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center shortly after a medical flight delivered Brianne to the hospital. Jim Perkins and the family’s two youngest daughters, Mikaela, 7, and Makenzi, 4, flew up on commercial flights.

“When we walked into the hospital and saw she was still breathing, I was very relieved,” Jim Perkins said. “She sustained injuries that normally would have been fatal on the scene.”

Nay and Ruby and Tessie Perkins, a communications major at UNLV, remained with Brianne in Provo after the crash and moved with her to Englewood, Jim Perkins said. Nay, who also graduated from SUU, “has not left her side.” The two were due to be married June 18.

As word of the crash spread throughout Boulder City, the family received an outpouring of support from the community, Jim Perkins said.

“We’ve had people prepare meals for us here,” he said. “Her room at the hospital is wallpapered in cards, and her friends from high school have visited, as well as members of the community.”

Among those visitors was Mayor Roger Tobler, who employed Brianne Perkins at the True Value Hardware Store and was a youth leader for her at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“She has good color, and she’s able to communicate with you now,” Tobler said. “I’m sure all sorts of things are going through her mind, but she puts on a real bright face for you. She looks great.”

Tessie Perkins said she and her mother took the hundreds of cards Brianne received to Englewood.

“It’s been amazing the support she’s got,” Tessie Perkins said.

The support includes ribbons in all shades of blue that residents are putting on their cars and wearing pinned to their clothing, said Jada Richner, a friend who graduated with Brianne Perkins from Boulder City High School in 2006 and was going to be a bridesmaid in her wedding.

The ribbons have been made available at the Boulder Dam Credit Union, Southwest Diner and other locations to show the support of the Boulder City community, Richner said.

“We’re all just showing them that we’re all here for them and letting Brianne know we love her and are thinking of her,” Richner said. Already, the first 800 ribbons are nearly gone, and Richner and her friends are gearing up to make more, she said.

Police Chief Thomas Finn said the department has been offering moral support to Ruby Perkins, who is on family leave. “Ruby is reminded frequently of how much of a family we are,” Finn said.

Brianne Perkins is keeping a positive outlook, her sister Tessie said. She still plans to go to law school and get married.

She received a scholarship to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. The university has deferred admission and the financial award for her and Nay, Tessie Perkins said.

“She is very hopeful,” Tessie Perkins said. “She is very confident in the fact that she will be 100 percent better. She still has law school in her sights.”