Accident Leaves Teen ‘Thankful to Be Alive’

When Luke Laolagi tripped and fell on his skateboard, he received the equivalent of a karate chop to the neck.

The 13-year-old boy was jumping over chains June 10 outside a Target store in Northridge when he got tangled in them and fell, striking his neck on the curved tip of the board.

His airway quickly began swelling. Gasping for air, he went into the store to find his mother.

“He was pointing toward his neck,” Dana Laolagi said. “He mouthed, ‘I can’t breathe. I fell. I fell on the board.’ ”

Laolagi drove her son to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where surgeons performed a tracheotomy so he could breathe. The doctors told her that Luke had crushed one of two vocal cords and severely injured his larynx.

“Most people don’t survive this kind of injury,” said Dr. Marc Kerner, the head and neck surgeon who operated on Luke. “He was very, very lucky.”

Kerner removed the breathing tube from Luke’s throat Tuesday and the boy is eating solid foods and talking again, although his voice is hoarse. On Wednesday he went home from the hospital.

The day of the freak accident, a Saturday, started normally enough. About 1:15 p.m. Laolagi and her son went to the store to buy a gift for her 14-year-old daughter, Jena, who needed a present for a birthday party.

Luke, who doesn’t like shopping, stayed outside to ride his skateboard.

When Luke came into the store, Laolagi thought her son had something stuck in his throat, but then noticed a cut from one side of his neck to the other.

During the five-mile drive to the hospital, Laolagi said, she kept looking at her son’s lips to make sure that they were not turning blue and that he was breathing.

She assumed he would need an emergency tracheotomy. “I watch ‘ER,’ ” she said.

Kerner, who specializes in voice disorders and facial trauma, was driving home from the hospital when he was paged. The hospital’s emergency room trauma surgeon told Kerner to come right back.

When Luke reached the hospital, swelling had shut off his airway and he could barely breathe. Kerner performed a tracheotomy to save his life.

Luke’s father, Sam Laolagi, said that despite the accident, he is amazed at his family’s good fortune.

“[Luke] had the presence of mind to find [his mother],” said Laolagi, 40, who is a salesman at a waste management company. “I’ve been looking for my wife at Target for an hour and I can’t find her.”

“If you think about it, I actually won the Lotto,” he said. “Everything fell into its nice order.”

Dana Laolagi said insurance will cover all medical expenses.

The morning after the accident, after the swelling had subsided in Luke’s larynx, Kerner performed a second surgery. During a 4 1/2-hour operation--most of it done with magnifying glasses and a microscope--Kerner reconstructed Luke’s airway so he would not need a permanent breathing tube. He also reconstructed his larynx.

Although Kerner had performed the same operation four times before, he said Luke’s surgery was the most complicated.

“I was a little concerned. I had never seen anything so bad,” Kerner said. “I had an idea I could get [his voice] back. The question was: How good?”

After the operation, as Luke recovered in the pediatric intensive care unit, Kerner told him to try not to talk for at least a week. During that time Luke communicated by writing. After the tracheotomy, his first written words were, “What about Jena’s party?” When visiting friends asked if his larynx hurt, he wrote, “Don’t worry. I’m OK.”

At first, Luke was fed intravenously. Then gradually he began to eat soft foods. “You can’t eat with this injury. You end up choking,” Kerner said.

For an athlete who plays basketball, football and baseball, Luke found it frustrating lying in bed, watching videos and playing board and card games to pass the time. Dana Laolagi spent 11 nights at the hospital with her son to keep his spirits up.

On Tuesday, Luke spoke for the first time for Kerner, counting from one to 10. Then, in a whisper, he asked for ice cream, his mother said. Next week Kerner, using a special microscope, will check Luke’s vocal cords to make sure they are healing.

Luke still has a bandage on his neck, but he said he plans to go to class at Oliver W. Holmes Middle School in Northridge today, where he is a seventh-grader. He also plans to continue skateboarding.

“It’s just been weird,” Luke said in a raspy voice as he prepared to leave the hospital. “I’m glad to be out of here finally. I’m thankful to be alive.”