While acting as a Good Samaritan, Freshman Allen Deerman was struck by a car and hospitalized with a compound fracture of his right leg last month. He is currently awaiting surgery.

The incident began when Deerman’s family had stopped to help the owners of a broken-down car with a handicapped license plate. Deerman stayed behind with his brother, Sophomore Andrew, to push the car down Bell Road while their parents went to buy gas. “I heard the tires lock up and slide,” Andrew said. “I jumped onto the sidewalk.”

Allen was not as lucky as his brother, who escaped injury. The car slammed into Allen’s leg, breaking his tibia and fibula.

Kim Deerman, Allen’s mother, remembers the events vividly. “The man that hit him had pulled him onto the sidewalk. He was real upset,” she said. “Allen was saying, ‘Pray for me. Pray for me.’”

Allen spent six days in the hospital; the first 24 hours were in the ICU. Although he is currently at home, waiting to have surgery, Allen’s road to recovery started with complications.

According to Mrs. Deerman, doctors needed to place a rod inside the bone so that new bone could grow around it; however, this operation was pushed back because his leg was too contaminated. Instead, doctors used an external fixator, a device that secures the bone in place through pins on the outside of the leg.

Allen’s operation was delayed once again when a staph infection sent him back to the emergency room. He is taking high doses of antibiotics to fight the infection and can’t have surgery until it has been killed.

“We’ve turned the family room into a hospital room because he had bunk beds with Andrew,” Mrs. Deerman said.

In addition to fractured bones, a nerve that controls foot movement in Allen’s leg was stretched. According to doctors, this could take anywhere from 6 to 18 months to heal.

Mrs. Deerman added that her son was “pretty lucky” because “he could have lost both of his legs.”

One thing Allen hasn’t lost is support from his friends, family and even teachers. “There must have been at least 50 visits from kids from school and church,” Mrs. Deerman said about the first evening Allen was out of the ICU. Among his visitors were Math teacher Claudia Vera and band members who had made and signed a card.

Since Allen will be missing an extended period of school, he will be eligible for the GUHSD’s home bound program. According to Mike Dellisanti, assistant principal of student services, a teacher will visit Deerman’s house three to four times a week. “The curriculum is designed around the classes that the student was taking before starting homebound,” he said. The student must have a “physical, emotional or physiological barrier diagnosed by a doctor” to be eligible for the program.

Although Allen’s recovery is ongoing, his mother was able to sum up her feeling in just a few words. “We’re really thankful that he’s alive,” she said.