Christopher Rodriguez won’t soon forget his 11th birthday at Goodwin Park in Hartford.
It was just before 5 p.m. on Aug. 7 when a decaying red maple tree slated for removal by the city of Hartford came crashing down on him.
The fifth-grader starts school in one week and Christopher knows he has a long road to recovery after three surgeries. He was released from Connecticut Children’s Medical Center on Monday.
“One screw and stitches and the bone sticked our right here," Christopher said. “A couple broken ribs.”
With a smile on his face, Christopher points out his painful injuries.
“Before we cut the cake me and my cousin decided to play basketball and out of nowhere we heard the tree branch,” Christopher told NBC Connecticut.
They sprinted away, but Christopher couldn’t get out of the tree’s path fast enough.
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William Rodriguez, who is not related to Christopher, was also at the park that day and ran to the boy’s side.
“I heard the crackle behind me and I see the tree fall and the little kid running,” William said.
“When he lifted me up, I was like did this really happen? Then when he put me on the grass I was like ‘is this a dream,’ and they said no this isn’t a dream,” Christopher explained.
“He was saying he was really hot. Kept him calm and alert, he was about to pass out,” William said.
The tree that came down on Christopher had been tagged for removal by the city. At the time of the accident, Mayor Luke Bronin said that tree and more than 100 others across the city were already slated for removal and the one that hit Christopher “was not identified as an emergency threat.”
After the accident, contracted crews went to work removing other tagged trees. The city once had a full-time forestry crew, which was laid off which was laid off by the city’s previous administration. Now, the work is done with contractors on an as-needed basis.
Christopher’s mother Carmen Rodriguez said the city did too little, too late.
“I’m angry he didn’t do nothing wrong. He was playing basketball,” Carmen said. “I think the city should have been responsible for that, because they know it was ready to be removed and they didn’t.”
A spokesman for the mayor said they’re hoping for the boy’s full recovery but cannot comment further due to impending litigation.
