By Jolene Farley
Steen resident Anthony Reese was moved out of the Intensive Care Unit of Avera McKennan Hospital, Sioux Falls, last Saturday, July 28, after 29 days, according to his father, Alan Reese.
Coincidentally, Saturday was also Reese's 21st birthday.
Reese's condition is critical but stable now, according to his father. Doctors were forced to amputate one of his legs but are hoping the other can be saved. Although his liver is working now, doctors say it will be some time before it functions normally. Reese's kidneys shut down for four days, but they are also functioning again.
He was injured in a head-on collision four miles south of Luverne Friday, June 29. His vehicle, a 1997 Jeep Cherokee, was totaled in the accident.
Reese suffered a broken left arm and shoulder, a right leg broken in two places and a left leg broken knee to ankle. His spleen and gall bladder were removed immediately after the accident. His kidneys and heart were bruised.
"It's a day by day thing," said Alan Reese. "You hope and pray." He said doctors told him every day in the ICU equates to one week of recuperation at home. "He has a lot of mending to do. It is going to take months."
Family friend Cory Nowka said friends and family continue to show support for Reese by visiting him daily and reading cards and notes from a tablet that was started to let him know people were thinking of him.
The driver of the other vehicle, Ralph Edward Kingery, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Passenger Mary Theresa Elliot, 41, died of head and internal injuries the day after the accident.