Ouch!

This is my sweet niece Valerie. She is Olivia's best friend and cousin. She looks pretty banged up here because she was riding a bike when she flew over the handlebars and landed on her head. Val's usually one to wear her helmet (she keeps it on the handlebars on her bike at home) but a neighbor came over with a cool bike she wanted to ride. She wasn't used to the brakes on the bike and was going down a hill when she stopped way too fast. She was bleeding a bit from the back of her head and the front was really bruised and swollen. She went into the house where my sister and brother in law tried to assess how bad the damage was. They knew it was serious when she went unconscious twice and they called an ambulance. From a CT the doctors could see the skull was fractured almost like a crack on an egg, but luckily, not completely cracked open like a melon (not my analogy). Had it been more serious she'd have had to have surgery to repair the fracture probably with metal screws or attachments. She had to stay in the hospital for 24 hours. I think this is a great reminder for me to make sure my kids always wear helmets. My sister says Val has become the poster child for the entire neighborhood and all the kids are now wearing helmets again. Valerie will be fine. She cannot run, jump, ride her bike or play hard for two months! Poor thing, she's 10 so that will not be an easy sentence. I'm glad she's okay.