Vaughn student recovering at home after bicycle-trailer accident

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

Shawn Matthew Perez sits in a wheelchair in his kitchen with a firefighter’s hat on his lap. The hat is emblazoned with well-wishes from the Key Peninsula Fire Department: “We all wish you a quick recovery,” “Hope to see you soon!” and “Rock Star!”

Shawn Matthew is a lucky boy, although he doesn’t feel lucky right now. He will be bound to a wheelchair for most of the summer.

Shawn Matthew got to know some of the Key Peninsula firefighters on April 15 when he collided with a dump truck while riding his bicycle. The truck was towing a trailer, and Perez thought he had cleared the back of the truck. His bike hit the tow bar and he was pulled under the trailer.

“It was a freak accident,” said his father, Michael Perez, who stayed by his son’s side at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where the boy was airlifted in critical condition.

Shawn Matthew underwent two surgeries for a head injury, a laceration to his right arm and a broken pelvic bone. He was released Friday from the hospital, where he spent his 11th birthday during his two-week stay.

When the accident occurred, the boy’s mother, Joan Perez, was returning from visiting her father in Guam. He recently passed away.

“This whole month has been terrible for us,” she said.

Shawn Matthew himself is no stranger to hard times — the fourth-grade Vaughn Elementary School student is struggling through his fourth year of remission from leukemia and underwent two bone marrow transplants during the past year.

“He’s gone through about 50 lives by now,” his father said.

Shawn Matthew is glad to be at home and is “getting better every day,” Michael Perez said. “He still needs to see a doctor at Harborview. They’re trying to get the appointments closer, though. It’s such a long drive for us.”

Shawn Matthew can’t put weight on his left foot and needs to use a board to get from his wheelchair to his bed. But right now, he has normal things on his mind for a boy his age. He wants to go outside, but “it’s too cold.”

“I have to send out cards,” he said, referring to the thank-you cards he plans to write when his hand — which is in a brace at the moment — gets better. “And if I get bored, I’ll just go to my friends’.”

Michael Perez can’t say enough about the staff at the fire department and at Harborview.

“They’ve been just great,” he said.

The staff at Shawn Matthew’s school has been supportive, and his teacher, Ann Puckett, plans to help tutor him at his home until the end of the school year.

“Everybody at that school is making sure he’ll get through to the next grade,” his father said.

The students at Vaughn Elementary School launched a “penny drive” on Shawn Matthew’s behalf and raised nearly $3,000.

“The students in his class really wanted to do something for Shawn,” said the school principal, Mike Benoit. “There was a kindergarten boy that brought in his tooth fairy money. Another little girl brought in a Little Tykes wheelbarrow full of coins. When she was bringing it in, it toppled over in the hall.”

One of Shawn’s classmates, Josh Fudge, said his mother helped by taking jars to a meeting she attended in order to fill it up with coins. Another classmate, Dom Nole, gave $70 from his own birthday money.

“At first I thought I was broke, but then I found all my birthday money,” Nole said.

Nole recalled his reaction when he first learned of Shawn’s accident.

“I got a little psyched at first when I found out who it was,” he said. “I got sent home because of my emotions and I started crying all night.”

Right now, Shawn’s father said his son’s prognosis looks good.

“He should able to go back to whatever he was doing before,” he said. “But he’ll have to use the wheelchair for about four months. He’s had head trauma, so we don’t know if he’ll have headaches or anything down the line. We’ll just have to see and find out.”

Reach reporter Susan Schell at 253-853-9240 or by e-mail at susan.schell@gateline.com.