Hurt boy says no to quad bike
2008-11-27 09:14
Pretoria - Derik van Heerden jnr, the four-year-old boy who broke all the bones in his face and suffered skull fractures when he drove his quad bike into a brick wall, has lost interest in the bike.
"I will never ride a quad bike again," he said after arriving home from hospital.
Derik was not wearing a crash helmet when the accident happened at his parents' house in Mountain View, north of Pretoria.
His mother, Debbie van Heerden, said when he arrived home last Wednesday after being released from the Eugène Marais hospital, he immediately went to climb on top of his quad bike.
But when he started remembering what had happened to him, he lost interest in the quad bike and wanted nothing to do with it.
Healing
Derik said he had no pain, but was not allowed to play too roughly.
"He may not run, jump or ride a bike, because if he falls on his face, it could aggravate the damage. It is difficult for him, because his younger brother, Dewald, 2, is constantly on his bike and runs around," said Van Heerden.
She said doctors had inserted screws and plates to the right side of Derik's face to help heal the fractures.
"The left side of his face heals by itself as the fractures are not as bad there.
"We are lucky that he suffered no brain damage. There will be more operations to his nose and there is the possibility that he may get meningitis, but we are watching him carefully."
She said the prayers of thousands of people had carried him through it all.
Van Heerden said she washed Derik's face softly with a warm cloth every day, to prevent it from hurting.
More treatment
"He only eats mushy food as his jaw has not healed properly. The next couple of days he will also see several specialists and we are worried about his hearing."
"He will also soon begin psychological treatment to help him cope with the incident."
Van Heerden said she and her husband, Inspector Derik van Heerden snr, 32, had decided to keep the quad bike for now.
"When little Derik is better and has coped with the incident, he can decide for himself if he wants to keep it and if we should sell it," she said.