Elizabeth Goddard is pictured in the family home in Clermont, with a pan of cookies she prepared for baking. Elizabeth suffered brain trauma and broken bones in a bicycle-motor vehicle accident on May 22 and spent five months in a rehabilitation center near Des Moines. (Janell Bradley photo.)
Goddard family blessed to have daughter back home
Janell Bradley
Contributing Writer
After Dennis and Joanie Goddard’s daughter, Elizabeth, was critically injured in a bicycle-motor vehicle accident May 22, the couple relied on prayer and their faith in God to give them hope that their daughter would again walk and talk.
And after 33 days in a coma, the feisty teen finally regained consciousness. Since then, she hasn’t stopped surprising her parents with her strong will to relearn speech and mobility following her initial hospitalization at Gundersen Health System in LaCrosse, Wis.
Elizabeth sustained brain trauma, a fractured C2 vertebra, and a broken femur, in addition to severely torn ligaments in one knee. Following surgery and care while she was in a coma, Elizabeth then spent five months at ChildServe Rehabilitation Center in Johnston.
She returned to her home in Clermont on Oct. 16, entering the city limits with a police and fire truck escort.
The following Monday, Elizabeth began transitioning back into her studies at North Fayette Valley High School. A sophomore, Elizabeth’s days are filled with classes in functions/statistics/trigonometry, reading comprehension and world history, and typically doing a couple of hours of homework each night.
When she has free time, she enjoys baking some of her favorite foods. But while that would be enough to occupy her time, Elizabeth also spends hours doing physical, occupational and speech therapies. She also tries to swim a couple of times a week at a pool in Postville.
The teen is working to strengthen her legs before she undergoes surgery for a torn ACL. She still uses a walker to get around, but has a goal of getting to crutches.
Five days a week, Elizabeth gets ready for school, puts on knee and ankle braces, has breakfast, and completes one of her therapies before school. She finishes her classes about noon, goes to Palmer Lutheran Health Center for another therapy session (Monday, Wednesday and Friday.)
The day the accident happened, Elizabeth was riding her bike home from piano lessons. She has studied with Carla Hanson since the second grade, when the Goddards moved to Clermont from near Maquoketa.
Elizabeth said the last thing she remembers from that day was playing “The Spinning Song” for her teacher.