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TODAY's Natalie Morales tells one family's tragic story showing the dangers of lawn mowers and gives tips on how to avoid the hazards.(Featuring Mason Lindley) "
- NBC
Trauma links the young lives of Leigha Martinelli and Mason Lindley.
While Leigha was at Duke University Medical Center battling neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer, Mason, 3 years old at the time, was beginning his own battle with injuries he sustained in a lawn mower accident.
Their dads, Steve Martinelli and Chuck Lindley, saw each other at various Elonthon events over the years; the dance-a-thon raises money for the Duke Children’s Hospital. During these times, the men would discuss fundraising ideas. One of those was a concert to benefit neuroblastoma research.
Neuroblastoma is the most common type of cancer in infants. According to the Neuroblastoma Children’s Cancer Society, there are about 500 to 1,000 children diagnosed with the disease each year in the United States, and it accounts for 8 percent of all cancers but is responsible for 15 percent of deaths from childhood cancer.
Leigha, 13, is now in remission. Leigha met Mason at an Elonthon.
“She said that Mason influenced her life, inspired her,” Chuck said in a recent interview with the Times-News. Leigha, he said, gave money in memory of Mason to the Love Enough To Share program one Christmas.
Mason died May 11, 2005 at the age of 6. He lived for three years following the lawn mower accident and earned the nickname “miracle child” from doctors at Duke University Medical Center. Chuck founded the Mason Lindley Miracle Foundation, a nonprofit organization, in memory of his son.
After talking to Steve Martinelli, Chuck thought it was just natural to fund neuroblastoma cancer research in honor of Leigha.
Artists Shanna Maria ( www.shannamaria.com ) and V.K. Lynne ( www.vklynne.com ), two young artists who have become friends with the Lindleys, performed an acoustic concert on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at The Reel Café, 100 S. Front St., Wilmington. A portion of the proceeds benefitted the Neuroblastoma Cancer Research Fund at Duke Children’s Hospital.
For folks that could not make it to Wilmington, Chuck said they can still donate money to the research fund. Checks should be made payable to DUMC Account No. 3915208 Neuroblastoma and can be mailed to Neuroblastoma Research Fund, DUMC 3828, Durham, N.C. 27710.
For more information on neuroblastoma, visit www.neuroblastomacancer.org. For information on the Mason Lindley Miracle Foundation, click on the Web site: www.MasonLindleyMiracleFoundation.org.
By Charity Apple
Times-News, Burlington, N.C.
www.thetimesnews.com
- Times News
xxxx - Duke Children's Magazine
xx - Times News
Lawn mowers h it or run ove r hundreds o f children e ver y year, and o ne of them was M ason L indley. When his mo ther, Tr acey, hit a bum p as
she backed up he r r iding m ower, she was h or rified to see 3 -year-old M aso n underneath the machine.
Her child ren "had been taught no t to come around the mo wer," says Lindle y of Burling ton , N.C . "H e m ust h ave had something re ally
importa nt to tell m e."
But M ason didn't remember what it was when he woke up from surgery. He was missing his spleen, part of a lung, part of his pancreas and
stomach, an d all but 6 inches o f his inte stine.
Mason died last year of complications from m inor surger y after surviving three years with his injuries.
Lawn mowers cause more than 74,000 injuries every year, according to a study released this month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health and Rice University. More than 5,000 of those are to children.
Gretchen Dau, now 29, is missing a big toe on her right foot as a result of a mowing accident. When she was 11, the lawn mower she was driving
in her yard tumbled down a hill, dragg ing her with it.
Now she explains lawn-mower safety to the fifth-graders she teaches at the Morse School in Cambridge, Mass. Mow hills vertically, not
horizontally, she says; ask parents before using the mo wer; always wear closed-toed shoes.
A study by Randall Loder, chief of pediatric surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine, found that the cost of amputations because of
childhood mower injuries was $44 million to $75 million. He estimates that more than 600 children every year suffer amputations because of
lawn mowers. His advice: Keep children indoors under the care of an adult while another adult is mowing.
The poten tial to run ov er a ch ild with a mower isn't the o nly dange r, says Sco tt Lev in, one of M ason's do ctors at Duke U nivers ity M edical
Center and president of the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery. "If a stone or a stick gets thrown out of (the mower), it's like a
bullet. Childre n have been blinded this way."
Contributing: Patrick Gavin
- Mary Specht, USA Today
xx - Duke Children's Press Release
xx - Triad Living Magazine
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Mission Statement : In celebrating the memory of Mason Lindley, the Miracle Foundation is committed to advocating, supporting and volunteering for medical children's entities. Our wish as a non-profit foundation, is to provide a beacon of hope for children and families through an outreach of love, compassion, and music.
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