WATERLOO - When Danny Penn was flown to Covenant Medical Center on Aug. 19, 2005, his mother was given little hope that her teenage son would ever regain consciousness.

The doctors at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, where he was taken just an hour later, gave her none.

"Once you walk through those doors you lose total control. You are not involved in any decisions," Jan Penn said. "You have to put your faith in the people caring for him."

On that fateful Sunday, Penn, then 19, had offered to teach a friend how to drive a stick shift. They left a church gathering at the Rotary Reserve in rural Cedar Falls. Minutes later, Jan Penn got the call that her son had been involved in an accident and was being flown to Covenant. Police reports say the driver lost control of the car on a gravel road. Jan Penn was told the car rolled at least twice.

"There very easily could have been four fatalities that day," said Dave Penn, Danny's father.

Instead, the family recently celebrated Danny's graduation from Hawkeye Community College's licensed practical nursing program. He is now preparing to take his board exams and is looking at registered nursing programs.

Jan, who sat by her son's side for five days while he was still in a coma, and then another five days in the Iowa City neurology unit, calls the progress a miracle.

From Iowa City he was transferred back to Covenant Medical Center where he pushed through eight weeks of intense rehabilitation to teach him all of the basic skills he had been robbed of by the brain injury.

"The first two weeks were pretty fuzzy," Danny said. "I do remember that I hated speech therapy, but it was physical therapy that worked me the hardest. I remembered hearing it was possible I wouldn't walk again. That was my motivation."

And others have been impressed by Danny's ability to overcome the hurdles thrown at him. On Friday he will receive Covenant Rehabilitation Center's 2008 Achievement Award during the 15th annual Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare Rehabilitation Awards Ceremony. Cozy Van, a business that provides around-the-clock non-emergency service for those in wheelchairs and even stretchers, will receive the award for employee or educational institution. The event begins at 3 p.m. in classrooms 1 and 2.

"What struck me most was his attitude," said Julie Grosser, Danny's rehabilitation social worker. "He went through a restless stage, but he kept pushing through. And as he continued to recover, he would come back and give us updates on school."

Stopping in on the rehab staff wasn't a chore for Penn, who now works as an operating room technician in the outpatient surgery department.

Prior to the accident Danny was uncertain where his professional path might lead, but now he has his sights set on a more focused goal.

"I really like working in the OR (operating room), but after the accident, I would love to work in rehab," he said. "Maybe someday I'll get my BSN (bachelor of nursing) and then I would really love to be a flight nurse."

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.