Mother turns son's tragedy into crusade


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ROY — Alex Carroll sat in a windowless office at Roy High School and worked hard to answer simple yes-no questions with his speech pathologist, Cindy Quercia.

"Is your name Alex?" asked Quercia. "No," Alex answered. "Yes," she corrected.

Alex was a popular, funny 14-year-old, his mother said, until time stood still.

"On Aug. 26, 2013, he was in a skateboarding accident right around the corner from my house," said Alexis Carroll, Alex's mom. "I was in complete shock. I had no idea."

Alex was with a friend, doing a trick, when he fell hard on the left side of his head. He was out cold and had bitten through his tongue. A grand mal seizure followed. Doctors removed part of his skull and gave him only a 10 percent chance of survival.

He's come a long way, his mother said. He's walking again, something doctors never thought he'd do. But life is a struggle. Alex can only say seven words, and his days are filled with therapy.

"Think if you hit scrambled eggs, they might wiggle a bit," Quercia said. "That will then cause breakages in a lot of the connections. So, that's a lot of the problem: connections between areas of the brain."

Alexis Carroll's son, Alex (right), works with speech pathologist Cindy Quercia. Alex was a popular kid before he suffered a traumatic brain injury while skateboarding without a helmet two years ago. He's come a long way, but he can still only say seven words and his days are filled with therapy. (Photo: KSL-TV)
Alexis Carroll's son, Alex (right), works with speech pathologist Cindy Quercia. Alex was a popular kid before he suffered a traumatic brain injury while skateboarding without a helmet two years ago. He's come a long way, but he can still only say seven words and his days are filled with therapy. (Photo: KSL-TV)

"That's very good!" Quercia praised as she and Alex practiced answering the phone. He couldn't say any words at all immediately following the accident.

He's re-learning basic life skills. But there's no class to help him with the friendships he's lost, or the anger, and the memories that are gone — hallmarks of traumatic brain injury.

His mother wants to save other kids and has a strong message for parents and children: Before kids get on a skateboard, they should put on a helmet, she said. It could save lives.

"You think a bicycle, a skateboard, roller-skating — all those fun activities that have to do with wheels — that it's not going to happen to you. Think again," Carroll said.

On that fateful day two years ago, Alex had gone around the corner and taken his helmet off when his mother was out of sight, Carroll said.

According to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of teens suffering from TBIs is steadily increasing. They're the second highest age group at risk, next to toddlers.

The CDC recommends children and teens always wear helmets when skateboarding or bicycling.


You think a bicycle, a skateboard, roller-skating, all those fun activities that have to do with wheels that it's not going to happen to you. Think again.

–Alexis Carroll


Carroll is pushing for a helmet law in Utah. It's become her life's mission. She now mourns the son she had when she was only 16, who became her best friend.

"(I mourn) the childhood that has been taken away from my kid," Carroll said, through tears. "He's happy now, but it's not the same."

The accident has changed their family's life forever. As they move forward into the unknown, hope is their fuel.

Alex's grandmother also longs for life to return to a semblance of what it was before.

"I want to hear his voice again," Laurie Whitten saud. "I want to hear my boy's voice, my grandson's voice."

Carroll wrote a draft of a helmet law and sent it legislators. She now plans to meet with her local representative about sponsoring it.

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