Barkus 'overwhelmed' by support

The long journey since his Aug. 27 boat crash on Flathead Lake has been a humbling experience for state Sen. Greg Barkus.

"I'm overwhelmed with the show of support and caring and thoughts and prayers that are coming for Kathy and I and the rest of the victims," Barkus told the Daily Inter Lake in a phone interview from his Kalispell home Tuesday.

He has been resting since returning home late Saturday night from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he had spent a quick 2 1/2 days for pelvic surgery. He came home with three subcutaneous screws pinning his pelvic bones together.

He's also on the mend from a couple of fractured ribs, a possible hairline fracture in his right ankle, cuts on his legs and a painful left knee. Seattle surgeons discovered debris inside the knee was causing the inflammation and pain, so irrigated and re-stitched the wound.

Now he's facing two months of wheelchair-bound recuperation, with no weight-bearing other than transfers into and out of bed, for example.

Physical therapy for now is just "toe stretches and back atcha," he said Tuesday.

"Physically I have good moments and bad moments."

The good moments? "When I don't have any pain," thanks to a regimen of medication, he said. "Generally I can get through the night pretty well."

Barkus was among the five injured Aug. 27, when the boat he was piloting crashed onto rocks at Wayfarers State Park south of Bigfork.

His wife, Kathy; U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg; and Rehberg's State Director Dustin Frost and Deputy Chief of Staff Kristen Smith also were injured in the crash.

All have been released from Kalispell Regional Medical Center except Frost, who continues to undergo aggressive physical therapy and close monitoring for a severe closed head injury. On Monday he was moved from the critical care unit to the intermediate care unit, a sign that he is making progress with his recovery.

Barkus said on Tuesday that his last memory from the night of the crash was stepping into his boat after a dinner and reception for Rehberg at The Docks in Lakeside and motoring across Flathead Lake back to the east shore.

"I have no recollection of the accident whatever. It's surreal," Barkus said.

He remembers getting on the boat, he said, and that "it was a beautiful evening. I guess it got real dark."

He said Flathead County Sheriff's Office investigators have not yet interviewed him as they continue looking into the events of that evening.

Right now, Barkus is focused on everything that has gone right in his life since Aug. 27.

"We have got an incredible staff of doctors and nurses here, and the nursing staff," he said. Home-health-care aides were at the Barkus home Tuesday.

The outpouring of concern has touched him and Kathy.

"Up to now, I've just focused on answering e-mails, getting bills paid - and the cards," he said. "I've gotten 400 cards. It's unbelievable. It's amazing É it makes me want to cry."

With him unable to do anything physical and with Kathy recuperating from cuts and bruises of her own, the support has been a blessing in day-to-day operations as well.

"We haven't cooked a meal yet," Barkus said.

Friends even got together to build a wheelchair ramp to his front door.

Barkus had flown to Seattle Thursday morning for the pelvic surgery. Before Harborview doctors released him for Saturday night's return trip, they quizzed him on his home's wheelchair accessibility.

Steps made it impossible to get in the house, he told them, so he made a quick phone call to Kathy back in Kalispell.

She called a friend, asking what she ought to do. That friend teamed up with others and made a trip to the lumber store.

"In three hours there was a ramp to my front door," Barkus said.

A nephew in Kalispell was a godsend, he said, as he flew out to make the return flight to Kalispell with his uncle. Barkus had been more mobile before the pelvic surgery because, he said, "everything was kind of floating." But once bones were pinned back together, the pain level amped up for the Saturday night trip on Horizon Air.

His nephew and Horizon Air staff eased him through it.

"They were wonderful; those folks are absolutely fantastic," he said. From the moment attendants put him on a wheelchair that could navigate airplane aisles until he reached the Glacier Park International Airport terminal, he was impressed.

"I couldn't praise Horizon any more," he said.

Barkus said he's facing a couple of months in a wheelchair, a lot of rehab work, some exercise and the possibility of a full recovery by next summer. He retired at the end of December 2008 from his career at D.A. Davidson.

"I can't express thanks enough for everybody in the Flathead who called and offered [help] and all of the well-wishers and the prayers - and John Creamer and the Dirtbags," a men's prayer group based in Bigfork.

"This has been a learning experience for everybody, particularly my family," he said.

"What an unbelievable experience to realize how many friends you have ÉÊIt's humbling."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com