APOPKA, Fla. – After falling from his bike and suffering a traumatic head injury, a Central Florida boy has become an advocate for bike helmet safety.
One of Killian Lightfoot’s favorite activities is to ride his bike with his dad and friends.
But last March when he was riding his bike with his dad and his friend in the neighborhood, he took a bad fall.
“I lost control and I kind of swerved off the sidewalk and when I did that, the bike came up and the peg, it’s almost like a metal pole, came up and it impaled the side of my head and made a crescent moon,” Killian said.
At the time, Killian wasn’t wearing a helmet.
His dad rushed him to the AdventHealth ER in Apopka, initially they thought he just needed stitches. But after a CT scan, they realized he needed emergency surgery.
Killian was then taken to AdventHealth for Children in Orlando for the surgery.
His surgeon, Dr. James Baumgartner, said his bone was an eighth of an inch away from puncturing Killian’s brain.
“We had two jobs,” Baumgartner said. “One was to get the bone out -- back where it belongs, and to make sure the covering of the brain was intact.”
Baumgartner performed a three-hour surgery and reconstructed Killian’s skull with titanium plates.
Killian’s mom, Meghan, recalls the moments after Killian woke up from his surgery.
“We were right there and the first thing that came out of his mouth was ‘Hi mommy,’” Meghan Lightfoot said. “And I just like lost it and I was like ‘Oh, there he is, there’s my baby, there’s those sparkling eyes.’”
Baumgartner said Killian’s injuries could have been avoided had he been wearing a helmet.
As a fellow bicyclist himself, Baumgartner had a heart-to-heart with Killian about the importance of wearing a helmet.
“He’s a smart kid, he’s a nice kid,” Baumgartner said. “I said look, this bad thing happened to you, you could really help other children in Central Florida avoid this kind of experience by saying, hey, wear your helmet. And it’s very I think, different coming from him to his peers than it is from me saying you should be wearing a helmet.”
Killian is well on his way to a full recovery and is now an advocate for helmet safety for kids just like him.
“Always wear your helmet,” Killian said. “Always. Because a helmet is one of the most important things about bikes. Be safe when you ride your bike. Be safe and have fun. You can’t have fun if you’re not safe.”
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