Coma patient is leaving Utah

A 20-year-old woman who has been in a coma since a fiery crash on Interstate 15 last month will return to her native California for further treatment.

Tara Berendes will be released from University Hospital next week and flown on a medical jet to the San Jose area where she will live in a hospital or a transitional facility while she fully wakes from her semi-comatose state, said her father, John Eichinger.

Today marks the one-month anniversary of the two-vehicle crash near Point of the Mountain that claimed the life of Thad Goodman, 28, Taylorsville, and left Berendes and her husband of 10 days injured. Josh Berendes has been released from the hospital.

The newlyweds were moving to Colorado, where Tara planned to attend graduate school; Josh was going to work as a church youth minister. Now Josh plans to get work in California to be near his wife.

The health plan offered through the new Colorado job had kicked in when the accident occurred. Tara since has qualified for Medi-Cal, California's health insurance program. The air transfer from Utah to California will cost $10,400, which Medi-Cal officials have said is not covered, Eichinger said.

Berendes is starting to wake from her coma, which was caused by brain shearing. "There are no definite signs of cognition," Eichinger said. "(But) there are small things, like we showed her a picture and she smiled."

Berendes also received burns on her forehead from the crash. Last week, her doctor performed a skin graft, which is healing. Also healing are a lacerated spleen, a clot in her kidney and a fractured bone in her foot, Eichinger said.

On Wednesday, Berendes was taken off the respirator that was helping her breathe because of a tear in her diaphragm.

Doctors do not know the extent of damage to Berendes' brain, but she is expected to have months of rehabilitation after she wakes, her father said.

A Web site has been created to update family and friends on her condition: www.tarajosh.com.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com