A motorcycle accident left a Two Harbors’ man battling for his life for four years.

Seven years after Don and Bette Alseth exchanged vows before the justice of the peace, their marriage was in serious trouble.

“I was thinking of divorcing him,” Bette said, “but I knew God wanted us to be partners for life.”

Bette was convinced the source of their marital problems was that God had not been invited into their marriage when they first said, “I do.” So, with their 6-year-old twins in attendance, the Alseths renewed their vows and dedicated their marriage to God and their family.

“That’s when we truly became committed to each other,” Bette said.

Although they had always attended church, the Alseths discovered, years later, a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Their faith and knowledge of the Scriptures grew while attending a small home fellowship. Eventually they joined The River (formerly Glad Tidings) church in Duluth, Minn.

The Alseths taught marriage classes through their church and counseled couples in their home. They modeled a strong marriage by partnering in everything. When Don retired as a welder, he took over the household chores while Bette worked. They had an active social life and enjoyed cross-country skiing, bicycling, camping, hiking and riding their motorcycle together.

Heidi Lynn Holbeck / Living Stones News Bette and Don Alseth celebrate the miracle of life after Don suffered through four years of major operations and traumatic setbacks stemming from a motorcycle accident until God’s healing hand restored his failing health.

The accident

On Aug. 28, 2005, 64-year-old Don Alseth was riding his motorcycle slowly down a side street in Two Harbors when a motorist ran through a stop sign and turned in front of him. He hit his brakes, somersaulted over the motorcycle and landed on his shoulder, striking his head on the pavement. Although he was wearing a helmet, the impact knocked him unconscious.

Don woke up in the Two Harbors hospital emergency room and couldn’t remember anything for more than three hours. The hospital personnel treated an injury to his ankle and released him without doing a CAT scan.  

For the next three weeks, Don seemed to be fine. But when he went out for a motorcycle ride with Bette, he knew something was wrong. “I told her, ‘You better get off. I don’t have my balance.’”

Don continued to get weaker, and exactly one month after the accident, Bette took him to the emergency room at St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth. By the time a neurosurgeon looked at him, Don was no longer able to sit up. The doctor flew into action and within minutes Don was in surgery. Holes were drilled into his skull to drain a pocket of blood that had been collecting in his injured brain for weeks.

That was only the beginning. In one month, Don endured four brain surgeries to stop further bleeding, drain spinal fluid buildup and repair a shunt that became plugged.

“It was getting to the point (where) it didn’t seem like there was ever going to be any end to it,” Don said.

The Alseths’ family and friends prayed fervently for Don’s recovery, but Bette chose a different prayer.

“God promises He has good plans for us,” she said. “I believed His plans were good, and I never questioned them. I only praised Him.”

Don said his prayer was simple: “I want to be whole again.”

When Don returned home, he had memory loss and had to relearn basic skills such as feeding himself. He was able to walk, but could only take short, shuffling steps.

Setbacks

In March 2007, infection suddenly attacked Don’s brain, requiring a fifth operation. Three weeks later, Don’s head swelled up and he went through a sixth operation to fix the bleeding and spinal fluid buildup.

A surgeon removed a piece of Don’s skull to help clear up the infection, leaving the left side of his head noticeably dented. After five weeks of daily antibiotic treatments, the Alseths waited several more weeks to see if the infection would return.

In May of that year, Don went through his seventh brain surgery, this time to put a titanium patch over the missing section of his skull. He was extremely weak and had to build up his strength and learn how to walk and feed himself again.

Don returned home in June, but his health soon began to decline.

“By fall, Don could barely walk, keep his balance or function mentally,” Bette said.

The day before Thanksgiving of 2008, Don endured his eighth brain surgery, followed by two months of rehabilitation at Bayshore Nursing Home. He returned home in February 2009.

During the next months, Don experienced a roller coaster of improvements followed by devastating setbacks that resulted in more hospitalization and rehabilitation. Don gradually lost his ability to walk and began using a wheelchair. By May he didn’t have the strength to stand and Bette had to use a Hoyer Lift to move him.

Coming home to die

On July 9, 2009, the day after the Alseths’ 46th wedding anniversary, Don was hospitalized with aspiration pneumonia. He had become so weak that the muscles in his neck were not working right and he choked easily on fluids. It looked like the end of his life was near. Don returned to Bayshore for a week, but Bette didn’t want him to spend his last days there.

“I wanted some summer with Don,” she said. “I took him home to die.”

By then Don was almost as helpless as a quadriplegic. He could move his limbs, but he couldn’t sit up, feed himself or take care of any of his own needs. Mentally he couldn’t reason or understand conversations, and his communication skills were limited. Bette was his full-time caregiver and only left the house for a few hours each week to run errands in town.

 “I became overwhelmed and exhausted,” she said. “I felt like his nurse instead of his wife. We had lost the joy in our marriage. We had lost everything except our faith in God.”

Whenever she became angry or rebellious, Bette asked God to forgive and help her.

“I would tell God I loved Him, and I was thankful to be able to do this -- to serve Him in this way. That would make Satan flee,” she said.

Ending the battle in the Heavenlies

Physical therapists came to their home to work with Don for an hour each day. Elisa, the head therapist, talked to Bette about their common faith, and one day said, “I think you should ask God to end this battle in the Heavenlies.”

Bette immediately changed her prayer.

“I felt in my spirit something broke when I started praying that, and I wouldn’t quit,” she said.

But Don was so weak that he was unable to make progress, and Elisa was close to giving up. Then one day, while she was trying to help him sit, he suddenly attempted to stand.

“I saw something spark in Elisa’s eyes,” Bette said. “She knew what Don needed was intense therapy.”

That intense therapy was available at the Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center in Duluth. Don was admitted to Polinsky on Nov. 13 and received four to five hours of specialized therapy each day. The results were dramatic. When Don arrived he couldn’t sit up on his own; by Christmas he was able to climb steps.

Early April 2010 at the Alseths’ home 

With tears in his eyes, Don talked about his journey and how it has strengthened his faith.

“There have been so many people praying for my recovery,” he said. “And this is recovery.” 

While he talked, two deer boldly strolled up to his large living room window and gazed at him expectantly. Without the aid of a walker or cane, Don got up from his chair and walked through the house, down the stairs and across the yard to feed them.

 “God’s grace took Don Alseth from the edge of death -- not expected to survive the night -- to full mobility without a cane and complete restoration,” said Pastor Rob Dean of The River Church, who is one of the many people to have witnessed Don’s miraculous recovery.

Although they are grateful for Don’s recovery, the Alseths are most eager to share all that God has taught them and all that He has done for them.  

In the middle of their trial, Bette wrote to a friend, and that message continues to be the Alseths’ theme: “Our focus through all of this is not on Don and me or what is happening to us. For Don and me, it is always about God and what good He can accomplish through the journey we take and the lives we live.”