An 8-year-old California boy is fighting for his young life and was put in a medically-induced coma after he collided with his little sister on a trampoline.
Leeland Havensek was celebrating his brother’s birthday party in Carlsbad when the accident happened while jumping on the family trampoline.
After the collision, his family started monitoring him every 10 to 15 minutes for potential concussion, Leeland’s mother Maggie said.
Later that day, however, Maggie heard a noise that she said sounded like a snore and discovered her son ‘was seizing and not responsive.’
The 8-year-old boy had to be airlifted to a children’s hospital in San Diego, about 34 miles away.
‘They said this is actually very serious and we’re not sure if he’s going to make it,’ Maggie told KTLA, as she and her husband arrived as they prepped Leeland for surgery.
A CT scan revealed a serious bleeding on Leeland’s brain, swelling and a blood clot big enough to cause a stroke in the young boy.
He had two surgeries performed on him and was in a medically-induced coma for days, but on Tuesday, Maggie said that he had begun improving.
‘They made that decision to act ahead and remove the skull to let the brain expand and swell without causing secondary damage. Everything they did was amazing and he’s responding really well,’ she said.
By Wednesday, a GoFundMe started for Leeland by one of his teachers, Melanie Lupica, said that he had started to awaken.
‘Leeland is starting to slowly wake up. They are removing medicines and watching him closely to see how he reacts,’ the fundraiser, which has drawn $36,000 so far, said. ‘His family is with him and he is starting to show signs that he can hear them. We are hopeful great news is ahead. His family is so grateful for the outpouring of love and support.’
The boy’s awakening is due to being taken off medication. However, he faces a tough road ahead.
‘He is not going to be able to walk. Not when he comes out, we don’t know, but his whole left side will be compromised,’ Maggie said.
Leeland’s stepfather, Casey Shershon, said that the fundraising and support from the community has been a huge help.
‘It’s like our darkest hour and the community really is a light for us,’ said Sershon. ‘Everyone is shining their light. [It] helps us see through this and just knowing he matters to so many other people.’
Trampoline accidents are common. Over 800,000 children sustained injuries from trampolines between 2009 and 2018, most of which were suffered by kids under 16, according to a Mayo Clinic study.
About a third of the injuries were bone fractures but head and spinal injuries are also known to happen.
‘Kids are endlessly inventive in figuring out ways to break bones on trampolines,’ says Dr. William J. Shaughnessy, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Rochester, Minnesota. ‘Safety nets are pretty effective at preventing children from falling off, but in the absence of those, they inevitably do fall.’
Half of all childhood injury emergency room admissions in the UK are because of trampolining accidents, figures suggest.
An analysis of nearly 1.4million trampolining injuries around the world concluded the activity ‘poses a significant risk’ to youngsters.
While trampolines have been a family garden staple for decades, trampoline parks have enjoyed a boom in popularity in recent years.
There are now hundreds of indoor and outdoor parks – a popular venue for birthday parties – across the UK, compared to just a handful a decade ago.
The study found children visiting trampoline centers were twice as likely to suffer broken bones or sprains as those using them at home.
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Half of all childhood injury admissions in the UK are because of trampolining accidents, figures suggest
This is because ‘the higher tensile strength used in commercial trampoline centers may produce a harder bounce’, creating a bigger jump and putting more pressure on bones.
The UK arm of the research, by the University of Sydney, looked at admissions to emergency rooms among children under 14 in Oxfordshire from January 2012 to March 2014.
Overall, about half of all physical activity-related accidents were linked to trampolining – making it more dangerous than playing soccer or rugby.