Seven boys, three skateboards

(Relayed to me by Tyler tonight - as best I can capture it.)

Wiley, cousin Tyler, and friend Sean were out roaming the neighborhood by skateboard yesterday afternoon. They met up with four other boys that are friends of theirs, out walking. That gaggle ended up at the top of the hill on a street near friend Will's house. Wiley wanted to go down the hill, but was a little daunted at its steepness. He was worried he might crash. Ty reminded him to carve turns to make the slope more manageable. A couple of the boys headed down the hill to keep an eye out and warn off cars. Wy took off, while Sean and Tyler decided they'd rather walk halfway downto make the trip more manageable.

By the time Sean and Tyler passed Wiley, he was down. They were absolutely certain Wiley was faking them out with the jerking movements of a seizure because of his worry about crashing from the start. They taunted him accordingly -- until they realized that his elbow was bleeding and he really had crashed. Suddenly it all became clearly very serious. They thought through what they see on TV and checked his pulse. Then -- sure enough, they realized they needed big guns, 911. Tyler pulled out his cell phone and called. The paramedics talked him through what to look out for till they got there, what to do. Then a woman drove up who had seen Wiley go down -- apparently the only one who did, as the boys at the bottom of the hill were looking the other way and didn't even know he'd crashed till Sean and Tyler got there. She was able to tell the paramedics where they were, as the boys were a little fuzzy on street names.

At that point Wiley apparently started to try to get up, and she held him down to keep him from moving. (Tyler thought she might be a paramedic, based on the questions she was asking Wiley.) Within about 3 minutes, the ambulance arrived. They put him in a neck brace, got oxygen going, and told the boys to head home. Tyler went to Will's house and called his mom. "You're kidding, right?" "Nope, Mom. I'm serious. He's at Memorial Hospital." She was finally convinced, ending up heading directly to the hospital while Tyler waited for a ride. Will's dad, arriving a bit later, took Tyler over to the hospital, too. Tyler called Tim and others. Ty's Dad, Steve, when called, also was initially dubious about Tyler's story. I think we can all appreciate the sheer unbelievableness of this reality, true as it is.


Tyler's mom, Deb, asked that I let you all know that Tyler is really doing pretty well. She said that she'd had a long talk with him about his own healing process out of this trauma, and that it's already underway.

Uncle Tim and Aunt Nancy are enormously grateful for, and proud of, Tyler's good judgment in realizing that Wiley wasn't faking it and needed help, fast. There's no doubt that it made a big difference in how quickly he got treatment and that may make all the difference in his trajectory.

Good job, Ty.