Help Support Christopher Valerio's Recovery
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12 year old Christopher "Lefty" Valerio suffered a serious injury while playing in a travel baseball game in Kansas City on April 23, 2021. He hit his head on a fence while playing which required surgery with over 500 stitches! The family is back home in Colorado and Christopher will have additional follow up appointments for his recovery.
Please join us in donating to this loving family in an effort to alleviate them of upcoming medical expenses. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. All donations will go directly to supplement the costs of Christopher's medical treatment and future recovery.
Thank you!
#leftystrong
Letter from the Valerio family about Christopher's injury and recovery...
Our 12-year-old son, Christopher aka Lefty, and his 12U competitive baseball team, Salty Dawgs Baseball Club, traveled to Kansas City, Kansas to play in an Invitational Only Majors Tournament over April 23rd-25th weekend.
On Friday evening, they had their first game. It was the bottom of the first inning, first batter on the opposing team hit a high foul ball to deep right field. Christopher was playing right field and he sprinted hard to try to get the ball and went head first into the chain link fence. He hit his head, went down, stood up to throw the ball in and went back down to one knee. The coaches ran out to him and the first words out of the head coaches' mouth was ambulance, ambulance, ambulance!!! Josh went out to the field to check on him and noticed he was in very bad shape and had a very large avulsion to his forehead. They carried him to the dugout and placed him on the bench. In the meantime, 911 was called and the ambulance was en route. A very nice mother, who is an OB/GYN nurse from the opposing team, came over to assist and she helped keep Christopher calm and keep the towels tight around his head. Josh was helping to keep him comfortable, awake and talking.
The ambulance arrived and he was taken to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. When we arrived to the hospital, we were able to see full view and assess the damage he did to his head. The avulsion went from his forehead and curved to above his right ear. They called in the on call Oral Maxillofacial surgeon to perform surgery on him. The surgeon said the avulsion went clear to his skull, cutting all five layers, estimation of about 500 sutures. Christopher has been a super trooper since the beginning of his accident and he's only become more tough. They didn't see any signs of a concussion, but they did run a CT scan to make sure internally all looked well.
We left the decision up to Christopher on if he would like to go home early and his decision was to stay and support and cheer on his bros as they had games to play Saturday evening, that well went to 11 pm that night. The doctors said he had no restrictions to fly. We flew out Monday morning and he did very well on the flight. Southwest Airlines bent over backwards for Christopher.
The medical staff at the hospital could not believe how well Christopher handled the pain and surgery. We are forever grateful for the medical staff, our family, our Salty Dawg family, our friends, the baseball organization in general for the outpouring thoughts and prayers that have helped immensely. We are beyond appreciative. He has follow-up appointments here with his pediatrician and Childrens’ plastic surgeons to make sure healing is going well.
We take it one day at time and continue to look at Christopher in awe with amazement on everything he has gone through the last few days and has stayed very strong. We are definitely proud of him. #leftystrong
Please join us in donating to this loving family in an effort to alleviate them of upcoming medical expenses. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. All donations will go directly to supplement the costs of Christopher's medical treatment and future recovery.
Thank you!
#leftystrong
Letter from the Valerio family about Christopher's injury and recovery...
Our 12-year-old son, Christopher aka Lefty, and his 12U competitive baseball team, Salty Dawgs Baseball Club, traveled to Kansas City, Kansas to play in an Invitational Only Majors Tournament over April 23rd-25th weekend.
On Friday evening, they had their first game. It was the bottom of the first inning, first batter on the opposing team hit a high foul ball to deep right field. Christopher was playing right field and he sprinted hard to try to get the ball and went head first into the chain link fence. He hit his head, went down, stood up to throw the ball in and went back down to one knee. The coaches ran out to him and the first words out of the head coaches' mouth was ambulance, ambulance, ambulance!!! Josh went out to the field to check on him and noticed he was in very bad shape and had a very large avulsion to his forehead. They carried him to the dugout and placed him on the bench. In the meantime, 911 was called and the ambulance was en route. A very nice mother, who is an OB/GYN nurse from the opposing team, came over to assist and she helped keep Christopher calm and keep the towels tight around his head. Josh was helping to keep him comfortable, awake and talking.
The ambulance arrived and he was taken to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. When we arrived to the hospital, we were able to see full view and assess the damage he did to his head. The avulsion went from his forehead and curved to above his right ear. They called in the on call Oral Maxillofacial surgeon to perform surgery on him. The surgeon said the avulsion went clear to his skull, cutting all five layers, estimation of about 500 sutures. Christopher has been a super trooper since the beginning of his accident and he's only become more tough. They didn't see any signs of a concussion, but they did run a CT scan to make sure internally all looked well.
We left the decision up to Christopher on if he would like to go home early and his decision was to stay and support and cheer on his bros as they had games to play Saturday evening, that well went to 11 pm that night. The doctors said he had no restrictions to fly. We flew out Monday morning and he did very well on the flight. Southwest Airlines bent over backwards for Christopher.
The medical staff at the hospital could not believe how well Christopher handled the pain and surgery. We are forever grateful for the medical staff, our family, our Salty Dawg family, our friends, the baseball organization in general for the outpouring thoughts and prayers that have helped immensely. We are beyond appreciative. He has follow-up appointments here with his pediatrician and Childrens’ plastic surgeons to make sure healing is going well.
We take it one day at time and continue to look at Christopher in awe with amazement on everything he has gone through the last few days and has stayed very strong. We are definitely proud of him. #leftystrong
Organizer and beneficiary
Craig Fox
Organizer
Fort Collins, CO
Josh Valerio
Beneficiary