Shaun Herrod should be getting ready to graduate this month with a civil engineering degree from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

He should be thinking about graduate school.

He should be looking forward to his upcoming wedding to his high school sweetheart, the mother of his two children.

Instead Herrod is learning to speak, to walk, and to do hundreds of other things he took for granted before May 7.

May 7. That was the day Maconnell Baker huffed Dust-Off and got behind the wheel of his Nissan Xterra. The day he blacked out while driving on North Maple Avenue, sending his car barreling into the driver's side door of Herrod's Honda Accord as Herrod sat waiting to pull into traffic.

The day Maconnell Baker changed Shaun Herrod's life.

The impact of the collision fractured Herrod's skull and three of his ribs. His son Keenan, then 4, was riding in the car but was not injured. They were headed to pick up Keenan's sister, Ann, 8, from Knollwood Elementary School.

Herrod's fiancée, Agnes Steele, was working at her cleaning job when a neighbor called to tell her about the accident. Steele went straight to the hospital. By the time doctors let her see Herrod 30 minutes later, he was already sedated.

"I knew it was bad," she said.

It would be a long time before they knew how bad. After the accident, doctors inserted a catheter around Herrod's heart to relieve air pressure. Several MRIs showed Herrod had brain activity and doctors took him off sedatives. But Herrod, who had slipped into a coma, didn't wake up.

"They said his brain was in sleeping mode," Steele recalled. "They couldn't tell me about anything, when he was going to wake up, if he was going to wake up … They told me all I can do is wait."

So she waited while he slept. His bones healed, and he slept. His muscles weakened, and still he slept.

Steele brought Ann and Keenan to the hospital daily to see their dad and tell him good night. Keenan regularly asked his mom, "Did they fix him? Did he wake up?"

On June 19 Herrod was transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Neb., which specializes in traumatic brain injuries. Within hours of his arrival medical staff had taken Herrod off the breathing machine and capped his tracheotomy, Steele said. They started therapy immediately, trying to get him to sit up and to stretch.

And finally, Shaun Herrod stopped sleeping.

"I remember waking up in Nebraska," Herrod said last week. He was thinking, "Why was I there?"

Herrod didn't remember the accident but its effects were clear. He couldn't do anything for himself. He had to learn to sit up on his own, to stand, to use his arms and hands. He had to learn how to swallow and to feed himself. He had to learn how to walk.

Herrod also had to remember how to form words and get them to leave his throat. Even now, after four months of speech therapy, each word is a struggle for him.

By the time the couple left Lincoln in mid-August, Herrod was eating solid food. "They said, 'Just smother everything with gravy and feed it to him,'" Steele said with a laugh.

He's made a lot of progress since returning home.

"When I was in Lincoln I didn't think about rolling over to either side," Herrod said by way of example. "I just stayed laying (on my back)."

He can roll over now. Herrod, who turned 30 in September, attends therapy three times a week - physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. He walks some but mostly uses a wheelchair. He's working on writing his name but struggles with one thumb that remains locked in place. Steele washes his hair and bathes him. His daughter Ann ties his shoes.

A third-grader, she's happy to get things for her dad - shoes, his jacket, a drink of water.

"I felt happy that he was OK," Ann said. Still, she misses playing math games with him and having him pick her up and hug her.

Herrod's eyes light up when asked about his children. He liked playing video games with Keenan and "making sure (Ann) was learning" by helping her with homework.

The couple expects he'll do those things again. Things continue to improve. They're both determined and optimistic.

"The doctors in Lincoln told me it takes up to a year for the brain to heal from an injury like that," Steele said.

Lance Roberts, an assistant professor in the civil engineering department at Tech, taught Herrod and worked with him on a research project involving asphalt recycling.

"He was just a really great student, a really hard worker," Roberts said.

The department had planned to hire Herrod to do research over the summer. Instead, during finals week, Roberts was visiting Herrod in the Intensive Care Unit at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

"It was very, very hard to see him," Roberts said. "He was essentially non-responsive."

By August things were different.

"It was just almost night and day to see him actually talking and moving and responding," Roberts said. "That right there just showed a lot of his character and how hard he must have worked when they were back there in Lincoln."

Tech has been a big help, Steele said. Donations made through the Tech Foundation allowed her to stay in Lincoln all summer. Tech students and faculty, some of whom don't even know Herrod, have routinely delivered meals to the family.

Steele's parents, John and Anna Steele, also have helped financially and by caring for Ann and Keenan.

Herrod still has a tough road ahead. Steele said his injuries are in a part of the brain that affects speech and problem solving - essential to engineers.

And physical challenges aren't all the family has to worry about. Baker's insurance paid $100,000 toward his medical bills, which so far total about $500,000. Herrod will need ongoing therapy.

Meanwhile, Steele quit her job to care for her family. "We're living on love," she joked.

Even if Herrod recovers fully, there are concerns for the future. Doctors told the couple that people who suffer traumatic brain injuries are 50 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

"My whole life is affected," Herrod said.

He had hopes of going to work on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to help improve the bad roads. Those poor roads were one reason Herrod, who is originally from Oglala, went into civil engineering.

With fewer than 10 credits left, Herrod wants to graduate at some point. Beyond that, the future is uncertain.

"Our lives basically stopped that day," Steele said. "Right now it's just living day to day. It's not planning anything."

When asked how he feels about Maconnell Baker, Herrod sits silently for a long time. He's angry.

"What he did … He is a man and he chose to drive and huff," Herrod said. "What man does that?"

Baker, 25, pleaded guilty to vehicular battery. He could get 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine when he is sentenced today.

Shaun Herrod got life.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com

HOW TO HELP:

The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Foundation is accepting donations to help the Herrod family. For more information call 394-2436.