Liam Gilbert, the nine-year-old Bremen boy rushed into surgery last month after a car hit his bicycle, is enjoying a speedy and complication-free recovery at home.
Gilbert was exiting a neighbor’s driveway on his bicycle at the time of the accident (see “Bremen boy in good condition after car-bike accident, family hails recovery as ‘miraculous'” in the Aug. 18 edition).
“[The driver] couldn’t see him and he couldn’t see her until the point of impact,” Melanee Osier-Gilbert, Liam’s mother, said.
Liam doesn’t remember anything from the moment before the accident until he woke up at Maine Medical Center two days later.
The remarkably swift healing process has continued since Liam returned home Aug. 19, just a week after the accident. Each day, he got “immensely better,” Osier-Gilbert said.
Liam has a total of four fractures – two in each shin – and gets around in a wheelchair. His legs are free of casts and in two weeks, he’ll be able to put weight on his feet and begin physical therapy.
He started fourth grade at Great Salt Bay Community School Sept. 6. The school’s principal, Jeff Boston, Vice Principal Kim Schaff and Liam’s teacher, Chris Coleman, have all visited him at home.
His classmates, family, friends and the community at large have sent meals, toys and other gifts. Dozens of get-well cards are taped up around the dining room.
The family’s church, the nearby Bremen Union Church, other area congregations and individuals “from the East Coast to the West Coast” continue to pray for Liam, Osier-Gilbert said, and families who have weathered similar experiences have been particularly supportive.
The family is grateful to all for their concern, and Liam doesn’t seem to mind his new status as a neighborhood celebrity.
He spends his time building elaborate Lego models, playing checkers, chess (his favorite) and Sorry! and visiting with family and well-wishers.
He’s eager, though, like any boy his age, to get outside and, especially, back on his bicycle.
