KODAK, Tenn. (WVLT/Gray News) – A family says a recent hike they were on turned into a nightmare after their child almost died.
The situation happened on a weekend earlier this month. Nicole Godoy said she was spending a Saturday with her family at Cades Cove.
It was a hike and activity they had been doing for years and had grown to enjoy, but that has now changed.
While hiking on the Abrams Falls Trail that day, Godoy said her 5-year-old son Xavier fell off a bridge and hit his head on a rock.
According to Godoy, it happened when Xavier was hiking with a stick. He picked it up along the trail and when he went to throw it, his momentum caused him to fall off the side of the bridge, sending him into a river about five feet below.
“I was just panicking. If it hadn’t been for the people who were helping us, I think it would have turned out a lot worse,” Godoy said. “Because there was a moment when he was completely unresponsive and his lips were blue and purple.”
Xavier’s fall left him with a cut on his head, a brain bleed and a fractured neck.
The family was already two hours into their hike when the fall happened and didn’t have cell service to call for help. But thanks to other hikers’ help, they could eventually call for help.
Xavier was airlifted to UT Medical Center where he stayed in the ICU for three days before being cleared to go home.
Godoy is now raising concerns about the safety of the hiking trail. She says the bridge isn’t wide enough for multiple people to safely walk across and the guard rail isn’t significant enough to prevent a child from falling over.
In January, a 3-year-old child also fell off a bridge at Abrams Falls and had to be airlifted to UT Medical Center.
“Maybe this wasn’t just an accident, maybe it was something we can prevent from keeping other people from getting hurt,” Godoy said.
Representatives with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Service did not immediately return a request for comment regarding the situation.
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