Boy, 14, lucky to be alive after smashing every single bone in his face in BMX accident

A teenager is lucky to be alive after smashing every single bone in his face in an accident on his BMX bike.

Grady Russell lost three teeth, crushed two vertebrae and suffered a bleed on his brain in the accident, leaving him needing five hours of intensive surgery in a specialist theatre.

Grady was at a local skate park in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, on his BMX, on September 29 when he collided face-on with a 10 foot ramp.

Two quick-thinking boys used the teen’s finger to unlock his phone and call his mother Julie, who rushed to the skatepark, and then call an ambulance.

When Julie got to the scene one paramedic was already tending to Grady and his father, Stuart, 52, was calling for another ambulance.

She said: “There was blood everywhere and his face was an absolute mess. Grady was saying over and over, ‘Am I dying? Am I dying?’”

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Grady was rushed to Hinchingbrooke Hospital then transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where he was taken straight into theatre.

The 14-year-old had fractured his eye sockets, cheekbones and his nose and split the roof of his mouth and both his upper and lower jaws.

Doctors spent five hours battling to restore Grady’s facial structure and he was put into an induced coma while he recovered in hospital.

Julie said: “He had to have six metal plates screwed into various parts of his jaw and a probe inserted into his skull to check the pressure inside his head.”

She said he had made a “fantastically quick turnaround” and was desperate to get back on his bike, but doctors had said he would need to wait until at least next year, and will have to wear a full face helmet if and when he does.

Julie said Grady would have to be slowly introduced back into school in a few weeks, firstly just for shorter days and then for full days but with longer breaks.

She urged all bikers to wear helmets and said doctors had said her son’s head injury would have been far worse if he was not wearing one.

Mother Julie, 44, has urged all bikers to wear helmets and believes that Grady would not still be alive had he not been wearing his.

Grady said: “I always wear my helmet but this has changed my life and now I’m always going to do it up.

Mum Julie, who is a conveyancer at a law firm, rushed to the scene when she received a call from a panicked boy saying that Grady had had an accident.

She said: “It’s an absolute miracle that he’s survived, I call him my little iron man because he’s been so, so brave.

“The boy who called me was at the skate park with Grady and said that Grady had lost loads of blood and some teeth, it sounded terrible and I drove straight over.”