THERE’S a long road ahead for 15-year-old Aedon Hudson.
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The youngster is lucky to be alive, and walking, after a skateboarding accident in Rosedale St, Nambucca Heads, on Saturday.
Fortunately, he doesn't remember much.
“I was just trying to get home,” Aedon told the Guardian.
“I remember running on to my board, skating down a hill, and just before I reached the bottom getting death wobbles violently … then nothing.”
Aedon’s mum, Lynne Anderson, said she is just glad she was at home that afternoon.
“I don’t even want to think what could have happened once he got through that front door if I wasn’t.
“He walked in, and I’ve looked around and he was covered in blood and he just went ‘mum’.
“I thought ‘oh my god’ and told him to go and lay in bed … then he said ‘my head, my head’ - he was disoriented so I knew it was serious and that he needed to go to hospital.”
Just moments after the accident Aedon was picked up and taken home by a stranger, who the family later tracked down through Facebook.
“I asked him how he’d gotten home and he just said ‘somebody dropped me off’,” Lynne said. “But I looked outside and they’d gone.”
The Guardian understands they came around the corner moments after the accident and saw Aedon stand up and stagger to the grass, then they saw all the blood.
“I don’t know what the words were that transpired, if he asked for a lift or if they offered,” she said. “I would only imagine being a boy that once he got here he went ‘I’ll be right, thanks’. And they’ve taken off.”
Amid the chaos, Aedon managed a thumbs up selfie of his battered and bruised self, which he sent to his mates. All while Lynne was tossing up between calling the ambulance and driving him to Macksville herself.
“I thought I would get there quicker than I would waiting for an ambulance to turn up,” she said. “That was the decision I made, I put him in the car and started driving to Macksville which, of course, was long and frustrating even though it was the closest route.
“He was moaning all the way but just out of Macksville he said ‘mum I can’t see, I can’t see’. So I knew there was something serious happening.
“We got to the ambulance bay and I really do think the amazing people in emergency, who stabilised him immediately, saved his life … so straight away they could see there was concussion.”
He was transferred directly to Coffs Harbour Hospital and was referred to the brain injury unit and neurosurgeons at John Hunter in Newcastle, where he will continue with follow ups.
“After a CT scan they found a fractured base of skull, bleeding to the front and back of the brain and many contusions … the brain injury is pretty serious,” Lynne said.
“It’s been traumatic – I certainly have a couple more greys (hairs).
“It was a close call and there’ll be no second chances as he knows. It’s just too much to think about … but I implore every parent to make sure their kids wear their helmets … that they don’t just take it with them, but that they actually wear it.”
Although home from hospital, Aedon said the effects are lingering.
“The symptoms of the brain injury are still present now, I’m still very sensitive to bright light and loud noises, tired, dizzy …
“It’ll be a couple of months before I get back to anything like this again, the damage is done and it wouldn’t take much to take it further and cause serious brain damage.”
So for now, the youngster has been ordered to rest up and recover.
“I’m thinking I’m not going to be bombing any hills anytime soon,” he joked.