Boy Crushed By Tree in Pescadero Celebrates a Year of Recovery

It was one year ago that 12-year-old Zachary Rowe was crushed by a 74-foot oak tree that fell on his tent during a family camping trip at Memorial Park near Pescadero.

Today, he is “zooming around on his wheelchair and smiling as broadly as ever,” according to a recent story in the San Jose Mercury News.

Still, it’s been a long recovery since the July 25, 2012 accident, when at 4:30 a.m., while Rowe was sleeping next to his cousin in a tent at Memorial Park, the tree came down, smashing his right pelvis and leg.

Rowe, who was visiting from Arizona, required a hip disarticulation and a hemipelvectomy, a high-level amputation that slices right through the hip joint, at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and remained in intensive care for months. It's a rare procedure that only a fraction of amputees undergo. 

The first weeks after the accident took a heavy toll on the whole family, according to his uncle Eric Engberg.

The family was also very concerned about the emotional trauma that Rowe, an avid swimmer and golfer, would face once he realized his right leg was missing.

Rowe’s mother and her husband have since moved from Arizona to Santa Clara for his care, taking up residence in Milpitas where his family recently threw a party to celebrate a year of his recovery.

According to the Mercury News, Rowe, having endured multiple surgeries and hundreds of hours of grueling physical therapy, continues to see a revolving door of doctors and even has occasional surgery, but he's taken on new hobbies such as learning the guitar and designing his own video games, which he plays with his father online.

Read the full story about Rowe’s remarkable recovery in the Mercury News here.