Paul Henry is home, happy and healthy

Paul Henry was hit by a vehicle on Oct. 19, 2017 while putting stop signs out at the crosswalks before school at the intersection of Highway 34 and Kossuth Street.

His accident has rallied the Osceola City Council into action on a safe route to school system and brought the community together in support of his recovery.

Paul suffered from a broken fibula and tibia, which hit an artery in the leg requiring a stint and a plate to fix, severed tendons in the wrist, a fractured wrist, fractured shoulder blade and brain bleeds.

He spent 56 days in Iowa Methodist Medical Center after being life-flighted out of Osceola.

In the first two weeks that Paul was in the hospital, he was in the ICU where he was on a breathing tube and underwent three surgeries. He was then moved out of the ICU into Powell for one week, then moved again to Yonkers for his rehabilitation.

Now that Paul is home, he still has physical therapy at Clarke County Hospital twice a week, occupational therapy in Des Moines twice a week and he graduated from speech therapy Friday.

The physical therapy helps him to walk better. He started out with a quad cane and now has a regular cane. He can do some unassisted walking as well. He still limps a little due to swelling on the leg after a skin graph.

"It looks like I have alligator skin or snake skin there now," said Paul in good spirits.

Paul's wife, Marie, is happy to have him home.

"It's been a crazy ride. It's great not having to drive to Des Moines every day to see him," said Marie. "It's definitely the craziest thing to happen to me, you know, for not actually happening to me."

The couple hopes that the city council moves forward with plans for the safe route to school. Lights have already been added to the stop signs that get put in the Kossuth and Highway 34 intersection.

"I hope that they can put signs further up the road to warn people that there's going to be a stop sign up there," said Paul. "I'd like to make it so nobody has to go put stop signs out there."

Marie made the point of distraction being a bigger problem than signage.

"We'd like to see people not being distracted while driving because it doesn't matter how many signs you put out if people aren't paying attention," said Marie.

There is going to be an evening for the community to welcome Paul home. At 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Osceola Eagles Lodge, people and families are invited to come and chat with Paul and listen to music from George Norris and Jeff Riekena.

"I've tried to send thank yous to everyone but I'm sure I've missed some people, but we really appreciate all the donations and prayers," said Marie.