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Brookfield teen gets synthetic skull after falling headfirst onto concrete
By Jeanne Starmack
starmack@vindy.com
Brookfield
Photo
Geoffrey Hauschild|The Vindicator.Michael Kirila, of Brookfield, looks into a mirror on Thursday afternoon at his home, a part in his hair reveals a scar from surgery after falling head first onto concrete from 10 feet up in a barn while moving bales of hay.
Michael Kirila, 14, remembers baling hay in the barn loft on his family’s property.
He remembers slipping on the wet floor and going over the edge to concrete 10 feet below.
He doesn’t remember his sister calling his mother. He doesn’t remember the frantic ride to Sharon Regional Hospital, during which his mother, Shannon, tried to keep him awake and talking. He doesn’t remember being taken by ambulance to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh or being rushed to surgery, where they removed nearly half his skull to reach three blood clots on his brain.
That was June 17.
The next memory Michael has is of a phone call to his father on June 21, when he wished him happy Father’s Day.
That was the end of three days of waiting for Shannon and Joe, his father.
From the time she saw her son in the barn, bleeding from his nose and ears, to the instructions to “say goodbye right now” as he was taken to surgery, she and Joe had lived with the uncertainty of what awaited.
“They said if he lived 24 hours, he would probably make it,” said Shannon at her Bedford Road home, sobbing at the memory.
Doctors said Michael would probably walk and talk again after extensive rehabilitation. But on Father’s Day, his parents were asked to step out of their son’s hospital room for a few moments.
A breathing tube was removed. Their cell phone then rang. It was Michael, with his special message for Joe.
“His whole neurological system was fine,” Shannon said. “Everything came back immediately.”
His recovery was far from over. For three months, Michael would have to wear a helmet while swelling in his brain went down. Doctors couldn’t replace the missing portion of skull with a synthetic piece until that happened.
He couldn’t play the contact sports he loved, or water ski. Unable to be very active, his dad told him, “get a project,” Shannon said.
So he got a Jeep — one that needed a whole lot of work. “I found one and talked the guy down from $2,200 to $1,500,” Michael said.
Using money he’d earned from grass-cutting and doing odd jobs at his father’s company, Kirila Contractors Inc., he bought the Jeep from its Wooster, Ohio owner.
That was in July. For the next two months, restoration work would keep him busy.
In September, the synthetic piece was screwed to his skull and he returned to school. But in the two months that followed, he was plagued by headaches and fevers. Doctors first dismissed his symptoms as a normal part of his recovery, Shannon said.
In November, his parents took him back to Children’s Hospital. A staph infection had caused fluid to build under the synthetic piece, which had been fastened to his real skull by three screws. Those screws didn’t hold, and it was floating loose. It had to be removed.
From November until earlier this month, Michael again wore the helmet and had to be home-schooled. The school district sent five teachers a day.
Michael’s grandmother got him a present — Hank, a beagle puppy. And of course, there was the Jeep. He’s been busy, with the help of a mechanic who works for the business, doing engine, transmission and body work. Two weeks ago, the piece was again connected to Michael’s skull. This time, Shannon said, it’s fastened with 36 screws and 18 plates.
Through his ordeal, he said, he didn’t get frustrated. He just looked forward to when things would be better.
He’s back to school, but for at least the next two years he can’t be as active as he’d like. No wrestling or football, no ATV rides.
In two years, the piece is expected to fuse with his skull, Shannon said. Maybe then, some restrictions will be lifted.
For now, he likes to hunt and fish. He’s content to take Hank for Jeep rides around his family’s acreage.
“He sits up on the seat and puts his hands on the dash,” Michael said.