Injured Teen ‘Thankful to Be Alive’

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

The 13-year-old Reseda 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 recalled. “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 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 spoke again for the first time since the accident, although his voice was hoarse. On Wednesday he went home from the hospital, and today he plans to return to school.

The day of the freak accident, a Saturday, started normally. About 1:15 p.m., Laolagi, 37, and her son went to the Target store to buy a gift for her daughter Jena, 14, who needed a present for a birthday party.

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

When he came into the store, Laolagi thought her son had something stuck in his throat, but then noticed a laceration 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 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 him to return immediately.

When Luke reached the hospital, swelling had constricted his airway and he could barely breathe. Kerner performed the 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. “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 the medical expenses.

The morning after the accident, when the swelling in Luke’s larynx subsided, Kerner performed a second surgery. During a 4 1/2-hour operation using magnifying glasses and a microscope, he reconstructed Luke’s airway so the boy would not need a permanent breathing tube. Kerner also rebuilt 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 he was in pain, he wrote, “Don’t worry. I’m OK.”

At first Luke was fed intravenously. Gradually he began to eat soft foods.

“You can’t eat with this injury. You end up choking,” Kerner said.

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, keeping his spirits up.

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

Luke still has a bandage on his neck, but he plans to go to class today at Holmes Middle School in Northridge, 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.”