A 4-year-old New Vineyard boy who had his right leg severed and his left severely injured in a front-end-loader accident on Oct. 23 has had six surgeries so far and three more are scheduled, said his grandmother Kim Mattson.

Mattson is staying with Adam Mattson at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts and won’t be coming home to Maine until the surgeries are finished.

“Adam has lived with me all but a couple of months of his life,” said Mattson, who legally adopted him. “He is my life.”

Adam was with Mattson’s boyfriend of 14 years, Sam Kennedy, who Adam calls papa, at a family gravel pit off Anson Valley Road in New Vineyard when Kennedy was briefly distracted and Adam got under the bucket of a front-end loader. The bucket, which was lowered but not on the ground, lost hydraulic pressure and came down on the child’s legs. Kennedy rushed Adam to a Farmington hospital, and he was later flown to Boston.

“Sam did save his life,” Mattson said.

On Wednesday, Adam was still in the intensive care unit but was expected to be moved to a main floor and return to the ICU for more skin grafts, possibly next week, she said.

The family found out last week that Adam will be undergoing rehabilitation in Massachusetts.

“So it will be several months before we can go home,” Mattson said.

“The fact is that even though we are Maine residents the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital won’t take him there for rehabilitation unless he is a patient at (Maine Medical Center in Portland),” she said.

Back in Maine, fundraisers are planned and volunteers are pitching in to help Adam. He will need a lot of a equipment and a handicapped-accessible home.

Mattson said she appreciates all the help, and said Adam has enjoyed the packages people have sent to the hospital.

“Adam is awake and trying to stay busy,” she said. “He is not an indoor kid so he gets frustrated but is doing very well considering.”

Adam likes Matchbox vehicles and monster trucks. He has a lot of trucks and cars at home but Mattson is buying some new Matchbox vehicles to prevent exposure to germs, because he took a lot of them outdoors to play. He also enjoys demolition derbies.

“We have taken him to all of the derbies and the monster truck shows wherever they are,” she said.

She said he also loves to watch the television shows “Survivor,” “American Ninja Warrior” and “Gold Rush.”

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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