BOISE, Idaho — Terrifying. Life-changing.
That's how Quaid Schellhaaus' mother describes her son's frightening ordeal along the Boise River this past weekend.
Quaid, a 15-year-old Boise High School student, visited the infamous rope swing on the Boise river Saturday. The young teen says he and his friends were waiting for their turn to jump when they heard a large snap and saw a large tree falling their way. Quaid tells Idaho News 6 nearby adults were heard screaming "run," adding, "everyone takes off sprinting in different directions, and I started sprinting in about three seconds later, the tree collapses on me."
After losing consciousness for a couple of seconds, Quaid says when he came too, "I was twitching a lot, and everything was vibrating inside of my body then after about 30 seconds of vibrating the pain really started to kick, in and I started screaming which is when it started to really really hurt."
The teen sustained a torn ACL, MCL, meniscus, and broken tibia and fibula. On the surface, he has scratches and abrasions all over his body.
Despite the injuries, Quaid says, being one of four people taken to the hospital, "I was pretty lucky in an unlucky situation."
The 15-year-old's mother created a GoFundMe account to lift her son's spirits. After learning that two individuals are in critical condition with significantly worse injuries, the Schellhaaus family encourages the community to consider donating to the two individuals fundraisers. You can find one here and the other here.
