For Amanda Arthur, Two Main Goals Close at Hand

Amanda Arthur is insistent about two things: She wants to go home and she wants to go back to school. Within a few days, her mom says, she will do both.

She will attend Newport Harbor High School’s homecoming football game Saturday in her first appearance on campus since a tragic car accident in May that left her in a coma for 11 weeks. She will not only be there, she will be a candidate for homecoming queen, nominated by her senior classmates despite her long absence.

“She is really strong-willed,” said Chris Maese, her mother. “And really determined.”

Arthur may return home as early as next week, pending some modifications to the house and permission from her doctors. She will begin tutoring sessions next week with a teacher from Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Maese said.

Though Arthur said she is glad to be returning to her schoolwork, she will not be satisfied until she is back in the classroom.

Maese said, “I ask her how she thinks she’s going to get there, and she says, ‘I’ll walk. I’m going back to school.’ ”

Arthur, 18, has been at Meridien Neuro Care Center in Santa Ana for five months since being thrown from a sport-utility vehicle that overturned while carrying several Newport Harbor High students, one of whom was killed.

Doctors say that her progress has been remarkable and that her recovery is months ahead of what they had predicted earlier. Since regaining consciousness two months ago, she has learned to walk again, progressing from a wheelchair to a cane to moving short distances holding on to someone’s arm. The former cheerleader has learned to talk again too, though her once-resonant voice is only a whisper at this point.

Through her struggle, her classmates, teachers and neighbors have rallied around her.

Bob Boies, principal at Newport Harbor High, said Arthur’s return will be one of the highlights of this year’s homecoming. “Many of the students have been inspired by Amanda,” he said.

Her story has also caught the attention of the media. Dozens of photographers and reporters, including a crew from the ABC-TV news magazine “20/20,” will be on hand Saturday, school officials said.

The young woman still faces obstacles, Maese said. She continues to suffer from short-term memory loss and has no recollection of the car accident. Maese said she has had to explain to her daughter several times why she is in a hospital.

That is a heartbreaking task, Maese said, because each time her daughter hears the story, she learns again that her friend Donald Bridgman died the crash, and she grieves for him.

Family and friends say they still hope for a full recovery as Arthur continues therapy six hours a day on an outpatient basis.

Maese credits her daughter’s rapid recovery so far to the grace of God.

“Our goal is a 100% recovery, and I think we will complete it,” she said. “When God starts something, he is faithful to complete it.”