Student who fell from University of Idaho fraternity will return home

 

NAMPA -- On September 10, the world changed for a Caldwell teen who fell from a window at the University of Idaho.

Since that time she's been in a Seattle hospital in the Intensive Care Unit.

Monday, she's coming home.

For Amanda Andaverde and her family, this is a very emotional and exciting time.

She now gets to be close to family, but her road to recovery is far from over.

"I would just be happy if I could hear her talk again," said Sam Banda, Andaverde’s stepfather.

Just after 1 a.m. on September 10, Banda's wife Emerald called him to say his stepdaughter Amanda Andaverde was in an accident at the University of Idaho.

"From what Emerald told me, is that she just had fallen from a building,” Banda said. “We really didn't know exactly how high or how bad of a condition she was.”

Banda says Amanda was stepping off of a bunk in one of the rooms at a fraternity house when she lost her balance and fell 27 feet to the ground below.

"Changed everything,” Banda said. “It just, it just changed everything all in the spur of a moment.”

Banda, his wife and their four other children jumped in the family truck to drive to Andaverde's side.

From a hospital in Moscow, a Life Flight helicopter took her to Coeur d'Alene.

"When we got closer to Lewiston that's when they called us again and told us they had to Life Flight her to Seattle, and that's when we really knew how bad it was,” Banda said.

For the last month and a half Amanda has slipped in and out of consciousness at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Doctors say she has a diffuse brain injury and is in a minimally conscious condition.

Banda says Andaverde didn't make too much progress in Seattle, but they aren't losing hope.

"That's pretty much what we're all praying for is for her to make a full recovery,” Banda said.

That recovery will happen in Nampa at the Trinity Mission Health Rehab of Holly.

Before the accident in September, Banda and his family sold everything they had preparing for a move to Texas.

The accident canceled the move.

That, coupled with Amanda's medical bills, put his family in a difficult financial situation.

Many people, including Amanda's Tri-Delta sorority sisters, have made donations to help with expenses.

The family will now rebuild their lives in Caldwell, with their friends and family all the while by their sides helping to make that possible.

"Words aren't enough,” Banda said. “I feel like I'm in debt to them. It's been pretty awesome.”

On Monday morning, Andaverde will make her way from Seattle to Nampa in the back of an ambulance.

Police investigating the accident say that alcohol was a factor.

On August 29, one week before Andaverde's fall, another University of Idaho student, Shane Meyer, 20, of Boise, fell at least three stories from a fraternity house window.

He was released from the hospital just a few days ago.