| 10/05/2001 | Jaden Cox calls it luck. His mom calls it a miracle. This miracle is fiberglass, weighs about half a pound and is bright blue.
"Now I know why they invented helmets," Jaden said. "It probably saved my life."
About two weeks ago, Jaden, 10, was in a serious bicycle accident. He broke his collarbone, fractured his skull and suffered a concussion. Doctors said it could have been worse. It could have been fatal. But Jaden was wearing a helmet -- the new helmet the Brain Injury Association gave his mom at her church's health fair the day before the accident.
Jaden didn't like to wear his old bike helmet. It was cracked, the foam poked through the top and it just didn't quite fit.
"It kinda looked dumb," said the Cottage Lake fifth-grader, who still sports a fading black eye beneath a sprinkle of freckles.
But Jennifer Cox, a single mom, couldn't afford to buy her son a new helmet, and worried about him racing around the neighborhood without one. She was relieved to receive the free helmets for Jaden and his sister Kayla, 12, at Washington Cathedral's Sept. 22 health fair.
He strapped it on over his red hair when he rode over to friend's house Sept. 23. He missed his 7 p.m. curfew that evening and was racing down a hill when he spotted a car and moved over to the right.
"My tire hit the gravel and then I opened my eyes. I was on the ground. I couldn't breath for a little bit. I was walking in circles," he said. Doctors believe Jaden was knocked unconscious for several minutes.
A neighbor drove the boy home, where his mom was convinced his collarbone was broken but had no idea he had fractured his skull above his right eye.
"Doctors said with the impact it took to break that thick bone, if he didn't have his helmet on, he could have a brain injury or died," Jennifer Cox said.
He is eager to get back on his bicycle but for the next six to eight weeks he is prohibited from any physical activity, including football with the Falcon Junior Football League.
Source: http://www.eastsidejournal.com/sited/story/html/68960www.eastsidejournal.com
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