Wichita boy hit by semi still hospitalized in critical condition

A 7-year-old boy who was struck by a semi-trailer truck Saturday afternoon when he reached into the street for an errant football remained in critical condition Monday, though his father said he is hopeful about his son’s condition improving.

LaDale Washington Jr., who plays for the second-grade Bulldogs, had already finished his game at Linwood Park and was playing catch with relatives at halftime of his cousin’s sixth-grade game. As they were playing catch, an errant throw caused the ball to roll through the grass and over the curb at about 2:40 p.m., his father said.

“He never stepped out into the street when he reached for the ball,” LaDale Washington Sr. said of his son.

The back bumper of a semi coming north on Hydraulic struck the boy in the head next to the park in the 1800 block of South Hydraulic, police have said. Witnesses told the older Washington the impact threw his son’s body in the air, and he flipped a couple of times.

The force of the impact fractured the boy’s skull, his father said. Doctors at Via Christi Hospital St. Francis removed even more of his son’s skull to minimize brain damage as swelling occurred, he said.

His son is in a drug-induced coma, Washington said, but he is cautiously optimistic about his son’s survival.

“He’s doing really good for what happened to him,” Washington said.

The 36-year-old driver of the truck, which belongs to an ice cream company, stopped immediately upon realizing he had struck the boy. He has been cooperative, police said.

“There will be no criminal charges at this time,” Wichita police Lt. James Espinoza said Monday. “However, we are still looking into it, gathering the facts.”

The boy’s father has set up an account through www.gofundme.com to raise money for his son’s medical expenses.

“If he pulls through this and I’m able to take him home, it’s going to be a lengthy, drawn-out, expensive process” toward recovery, said Washington, who added that he is a single father with full custody of his son.

He has medical insurance through the state, Washington said, but there will be some expenses not covered by insurance.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Wichita boy hit by semi still hospitalized in critical condition."