Boy hit by truck celebrates ‘an amazingly happy ending’

PALMER — Layton Dunham was just a few hours old the first time he was featured in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

Before privacy rule changes, the Frontiersman highlighted the first baby born each year in the New Year’s edition. Layton was featured in the Frontiersman as the first baby born in the Valley at the change of the new millennium on Jan. 1, 2000.

He and mom Susan Dunham return to the Frontiersman’s pages this week to celebrate his recovery from a serious June 26 bicycle accident.

The two had been home about an hour after returning from a 250-mile canoe trip from Carmack to Dawson City. Layton didn’t see the truck approaching as he crossed the road on his bicycle that afternoon. The young driver in the truck didn’t see him either.

“It happened terribly, incredibly fast,” Susan said.

The vehicle hit Layton and knocked him unconscious, she said.

Ground and air ambulances reached the scene in minutes and Layton was flown by emergency air ambulance to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where he was taken into surgery immediately for a compound fracture of his left leg.

Once his leg was taken care of, doctors began to address his other injuries — skull and facial fractures, a broken collarbone, a collapsed lung and a punctured spleen.

For the next 2.5 weeks, Layton was in a coma. In total, he spent six weeks in hospitals in Anchorage and Seattle this summer. He was released from Seattle Children’s Hospital Aug. 2.

“He’s made amazing progress,” Susan said.

Friends have organized a fundraiser for the family at 5 p.m., Sept. 21 at Palmer Junior Middle School.

“Love for Layton — A Celebration of Healing” includes a pasta feed and silent and live auctions.

For the Dunham family, the event is a celebration of Layton’s recovery and a chance to thank the many people in the community who helped them this summer.

“I want everybody to come and see how well he’s doing,” Susan said.

‘It’s good to be alive’

Layton is an athlete. It’s a shorter list to say which sports he doesn’t like: golf, tennis and figure skating. His bedroom is decorated in the colors of the NBA’s Miami Heat — he is a huge LeBron James fan — and filled with the sports trophies he’s earned in his first 13 years of life.

Asked to sum up his summer, Layton said, “It’s good to be alive.”

He’s going to school at home for the first quarter, and Susan is on leave from her 20-year teaching career at Palmer Junior Middle School.

Both say they will return to class next quarter.

For now, Susan said she spends a lot of time transporting Layton to medical appointments, like the physical therapist he works with three hours a day, three times a week.

“We’ve spent a lot of time together this summer,” she said.

The two are scheduled to return to Seattle next month and again next year for more tests, Susan said.

Though her family lives out of state, she said their Alaska friends were incredibly generous with their assistance.

Susan said friends came over and moved furniture, replaced carpet, tiled, painted and installed handicap bars. Others tended her gardens and pets all summer, she said.

Layton has made friends around the Valley playing sports. Susan said she received countless phone calls from his friends’ parents who could imagine nothing worse and just wanted to do something to help.

“People just couldn’t do enough,” she said of the humbling kindness shown her family.

Susan said she started a Facebook page to share updates about Layton’s progress with her friends and family.

She said she loves hearing the stories of Layton’s friends, who used the page to get news of his progress. “Mom, mom, mom. Will you check on Layton for me?”

“It’s an amazingly happy ending,” Susan said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268

or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.