12/06/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, US // Sandra Quinlan // Sandra Quinlan
Vienna, IL—An 11-year-old boy whose head was run over by a tractor was released from the hospital two weeks after the horrific accident, stunning doctors who initially claimed that if the boy were to survive, he would spend at least two months in the hospital and likely suffer brain damage or paralysis. According to a Dec. 3, 2010 KFVS12 report, the victim and his brother were playing on the tractor on Oct. 30, when something went terribly wrong.
Reports indicated Dylan Singleterry and his brother Luke, 10, jumped on their family’s tractor and were fooling around when Dylan kicked it out of gear for unknown reasons.
The tractor subsequently began moving, prompting Luke to push Dylan off the tractor in an attempt to keep his brother from hitting an oncoming tree.
Unfortunately, Dylan then fell under the tractor. According to Dylan’s mother, Shelley Thomas, “Luke was trying to pull Dylan up to the front gate, and at that time we saw his skull was crushed open and it was mushy on the left side he wasn’t responding to us.”
Emergency medical personnel quickly transported the injured fifth grader to an area school, where a medical helicopter arrived to airlift him to a St. Louis hospital.
His parents had to drive to the medical center. “The hospital would call every 15 minutes to say we needed to get there because Dylan wasn’t going to make it,” said Mrs. Thomas.
Before his troubled parents arrived at the hospital, doctors began to perform an emergency operation on him. The surgery took approximately three and a half hours.
“We couldn’t see him, I didn’t know if he was alive or what was going on… In a split second we could have lost him,” Thomas added.
The tractor’s tire weighed between 1100 and 1500 pounds, crushing his head and fracturing countless bones in his face. Yet while his injuries were extremely severe, it wasn’t too long before the child began communicating again.
Within two weeks, the 11-year-old was released from the hospital. He apparently suffered some brain damage, though his parents claim it is hardly noticeable.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Dylan’s father, Ron Thomas. “It’s a miracle, and out and out miracle,” he contended.
Dylan’s survival is even more astonishing, given that he had a shunt in his head since he was born and had suffered several brain bleeds in the past.
Though Dylan is expected to undergo several other operations, and will require extensive physical therapy, the early phases of his recovery have proven to be truly remarkable.
Legal News Reporter: Sandra Quinlan– Legal News for Illinois Personal Injury Lawyers.
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