By Kevin Cole
Omaha World-Herald
Copyright 2008 The Omaha World-Herald Company
OMAHA, Neb. — Emergency personnel who attended to a 10-year-old boy fatally wounded in an accident on Sunday said it’s likely the boy fell on a metal rod that was on a table.
The boy, Garrett Schomer of Omaha, died Monday morning at the Nebraska Medical Center after the rod punctured his skull above his left eye.
Omaha Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Carritt, the emergency medical services shift supervisor, said paramedics found the boy at 2045 N. 65th St. just before 4 p.m. He had been carried there after being injured in the back yard of a house at 2031 N. 65th St.
“My people told me . . . it was likely that (Garrett) was running and tripped, falling into a metal rod that was on a table,” Carritt said. “The table and the metal piece were pushed up against the house, and the rod pushed through his skull.”
Garrett, who lives at 2337 N. 70th Ave., was playing with two brothers who live a few houses north of the accident scene. A police report said the boy was unconscious but breathing when the mother of the other boys picked him up and took him to her house.
Garrett’s friends removed the metal rod from his forehead, said Ray Besore, who owns the house where the accident happened.
Carritt said it’s not a good idea to remove objects that are embedded in a body, but in this case, that action probably made no difference in the outcome.
“It’s not surprising the kids reacted that way when they saw their friend,” Carritt said. “I’m sure they were trying to help him.”
Besore described the metal rod as about 18 inches to 2 feet long and maybe a quarter-inch in diameter.
A funeral Mass for Garrett will be held Friday at 9:30 a.m. at St. Pius X Catholic Church. The family suggests memorials to the Benson Little League and the Omaha Chiefs football team.
A fund to help the Schomer family with expenses has been established through U.S. Bank. Donations to the “Garrett Schomer Memorial Fund” can be made at any U.S. Bank location.
Garrett lived with his parents, Trevor and Kathy Schomer. He was a fourth-grader at Benson West Elementary School.