I don’t remember the fall.

I can remember telling my mom I was skating downtown with my friends for dinner. I don’t remember grabbing the board and letting it slam on the asphalt. I don’t remember jumping on and pushing away from the house. I can’t remember what it felt like staring down the hill before pushing off. I can only imagine the yellow street lines as they blurred together when I picked up speed. I carved the hill, I think. Maybe I crouched low as I took a curve or I leaned back to keep my balance. As momentum built I could have possibly lost control. I could have fell back and as the right side of my head met the pavement and my body went into a seizure, maybe I thought to myself why didn’t I put my helmet on? But I don’t know. I can’t remember the fall.

The pieces of my story are remembered by my mother and my friends. My friends called 9-1-1. They stayed with me as the paramedics checked my vitals. It was five minutes after I had talked with my mom that she answered the call telling her that her son had been involved in a horrific skateboarding accident. The paramedics met my mother at a local area hospital. As I was being brought in I was coherent until I had a grand mal seizure that wiped out my memory.

After 10 to 15 minutes, I vomited blood and doctors did a CT scan and found out that I had an intracranial hematoma and abrasions on my brain from the intensity of the fall. Basically a vessel in my brain had burst and I needed surgery for the bleeding to stop. I had to have special care and it was decided that I had to be transported to Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach.

When I reached the intensive care unit at Miller Children’s it was too late. They attempted to do another CT scan but the bleeding was worsening and I stopped breathing. I went into surgery at midnight to stop the bleeding and remove the blood. I was placed on a ventilator because I had a collapsed lung and had an abrasion on my right lung from the injury.

For two weeks, I didn’t know what was happening to me. During this time, I had several blood transfusions and I was on a ventilator for four days. When I finally woke up, I looked around and didn’t know where I was. I couldn’t remember anything. I had no idea what I was in the hospital for.

After I regained my strength, I moved to the rehabilitation unit at the hospital. Even though I was out of the ICU, I hadn’t escaped my accident. I have paralysis on the right side of my face so the therapists had to teach me everything again. For every day I was in the hospital. I had six hours of intensive occupational, physical and speech therapy. I had to re-learn how to talk, eat and swallow. I still have no sense of smell, memory loss and some blood in my brain - but finally after 32 days in the hospital, I was able to go home.

Life since my accident has been hard. Rehabilitation hasn’t been easy, but I make sure that I keep going. I couldn’t complete my 8th grade year and had to make up some classes during the summer. The hardest part is not being able to do the things that I love. I miss the ocean water, sitting on my surfboard just waiting for just the right wave.

Before I started my freshman year of high school, I went back for what I thought was my last and final checkup. The CT Scan revealed blood was still pooling between my brain and my skull and my neurosurgeon, Dr. Ramin Javahery, decided I needed to go back into surgery. The day after the first day of school, I went into surgery where Dr. Javahery drilled two burrow holes in my skull. The amazing part is, I only missed two days of school this time and I was back sitting at my desk in class.

All I can say is I can’t remember my entire story, but you can remember it for me. Remember to wear your helmets. Remember how easy it is to prevent severe injuries like mine. Remember that it’s cooler to be safe than to be sorry. If I had one thing to say to you I would say…

remember my fall.

After Benjamin left the hospital, all he has wanted to do is share his story and teach other kids the importance of wearing a helmet. He wants to be a role model for all kids that think they are “too cool” to wear a helmet. Benjamin has teamed up with the Kohl’s Keeping Kids Safe Program at Miller Children’s to share his story and visit local elementary schools to teach kids the proper way to wear a helmet. At the end of each visit, he encourages the kids to remember his fall and always wear a helmet.

Even with the traumatic incident, Ben is doing really well in school. He has recently joined his high school surf team. After high school, his goal is to be accepted to the Air Force Academy to pursue his passion of flying.