Wellington boy, 12, injured in bike accident, grateful for community help

By Krystal Gibbens of RNZ

A woman whose son was in a serious biking accident in Wellington is grateful so many people rallied around to help him.

Dominic Gardner, 12, sustained a brain injury after an accident on Mt Victoria’s mountain biking trails on Saturday.

His mother Amanda Gardner said her son took a jump badly and ended up with a slight brain bleed and a serious concussion.

Gardner said a friend had dropped her son and one of his friends at the trails earlier that day.

The 12-year-old was attempting appropriately named hospital jumps when things went wrong.

“Apparently, there were a number of teenagers that found him,” she said, and a man who had been walking in the area then looked after him.

“I don’t know who he is, but I’m very grateful to him because Dominic didn’t know where he was or who he was really, but was mostly just concerned if his bike was okay.”

Another man in the area then recognised Dominic because his son had played rugby against him.

Dominic’s friend called his mother, who picked them up and took them to hospital.

Gardner estimates her son was looked after by strangers for up to 15 minutes.

“I’m just so grateful,” she said. “All of us who have children who like going off and doing these adventurous things really do rely on the kindness of strangers in this situation,” she said.

Gardner said she intended to pay that kindness forward.

Her son spent two nights in the hospital but is now recovering from home. He’s expected to be fully recovered in six weeks.

Gardner said he was determined to get back on the bike... and has already tried.

“The occupational therapist told him before we left the hospital that he wasn’t allowed to ride a bike because he’ll be quite wobbly. When we first got home I was doing the laundry and I got a communication from a friend who’d seen him riding his bike on the pavement, just to check if it was wobbly or not.”

Her advice to parents was to make sure their kids were wearing full-face helmets and to be reassured that although terrifying at the time, that their kids do bounce back from accidents.

- RNZ