A note on Michael Gross's hospital room door probably best describes the 41-year-old man and his dogged efforts to recover from a crippling car accident.

"This is the room of the miracle man! Beware of his healthy powers," was written in childish scrawl on a piece of notebook paper and taped to the door.

The youngest boy in a Strasburg family of 17 broke his neck and sustained extensive leg injuries in the Jan. 6 collision. Gross was on his way to work at HIT Inc. in Mandan early that morning when the other car crashed into his driver's side door.

"I remember everything that happened," Gross said. "They had to cut off my clothes and seatbelt. They cut my Viking jacket right in half."

The other driver was cited with making an illegal left turn and was fined $30, Mandan Police Chief Dennis Rohr said. He was uninjured in the crash.

When Gross arrived at the St. Alexius Medical Center emergency room, he "couldn't move nothing," he said. Doctors screwed a metal neck stabilizer, or halo brace, to his head. Steel plates were inserted into his shattered right foot and his back.

The halo was off months ahead of schedule, and feeling and movement slowly began to return.

Thursday, Gross sat upright in a wheelchair surrounded by numerous cards, banners and pictures of his wife and four children. His Viking's shirt and sweat pants moved slightly as he shifted his weight. He reached out his once useless right arm to grab a water bottle from his father-in-law, Al Mehring, as they talked about an upcoming benefit breakfast.

The surgeries and hours of physical therapy aren't cheap even with insurance, they said. Gross has 13 weeks of short-term disability and about 30 co-workers donating paid time off, but that runs out in April.

A benefit breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the Mandan Eagles will help defray some of the expenses. Gross said he'll make a noon appearance to visit with people over pancakes, sausage, orange juice and coffee.

"I want to make this the biggest breakfast anyone's ever seen," Mehring said.

Any other donations may be sent to Dakota Community Banks in Bismarck, Mandan or Lincoln.

(Reach reporter Mike Albrecht at 250-8261 or cops@ndonline.com.)