S. Calif. boy, 11, critically injured in Mt. Bachelor crash

An 11-year-old Southern California boy known as a promising young surfer is battling for his life at a Portland hospital, more than a week after a snowboarding crash on Mt. Bachelor sent him smashing head-first into the ground, causing a severe head injury, family members say.

“He’s cheated death,” Matt Belden of Laguna Beach told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday of his son, Brayden, who remained in a medically induced coma at Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland. He was flown there for treatment after first being flown to St. Charles Bend following the Feb. 20 incident.

Brayden had gone off a 35-foot jump on the Central Oregon mountain on Feb. 20 and caught an edge while landing, smashing the back of his head, his father said.

The family drove down from the mountain in blizzard conditions to meet Brayden at the Bend hospital, where they were greeted by a priest and learned the boy might have only hours to live. Doctors worked to stabilize the boy so he could be flown to the Portland hospital.

“The doctors were very surprised he didn’t break his neck or back,” the website Surfline quoted Matt Belden as saying. “He almost died — a pastor came in, the whole deal.”

He credited his son’s helmet with helping ease the blow

A family friend has created a GoFundMe page to assist the family with emergency medical costs. By Wednesday night, after five days, more than 1,500 people had donated more than $118,000 toward a fundraising goal of $275,000. The website noted that the two air ambulance trips alone were expected to cost more than $100,000.

Matt Belden said in an update on the page Wednesday that his son’s brain swelling appeared to have “topped out” and he was tolerating his medications, and that medical staff said it appeared a procedure called a craniectomy to remove part of the skull to relieve pressure on the brain would not be needed.

But the fifth-grader who attends Top of the World Elementary School remained in critical condition.