The young boy narrowly escaped an unusual accident thanks to his teenage brother, who sprung into action and saved him from under a tree. On the day of the accident, he was accompanying his family for a Father’s Day camping trip in Indiana. As they spent Saturday night at the campsite, the family with five children had to deal with the rain and wind beating down on them. “That storm was huge. The wind was hard. Most of the tents had flooded, but I didn’t expect it to fall the next day,” his mother said.
While Denise was using the restroom, a tree fell right on top of their campsite and struck 8-year-old Robert. “The force, like, the thump, was so loud that I couldn’t believe it. Like, I was pretty far from there, and you could feel it,” Denise said. Just a few feet away from the fallen tree was Robert’s brother, 15-year-old Neithan Morales. The moment Neithan saw his little brother trapped, he rushed to Robert’s aide and managed to free him.
“I seen the tree and then I seen Robert just sitting there and ran after him,” the teenager recalled. Robert narrowly escaped what could have been an immense tragedy for the family and is certainly lucky to be alive. Thanks to his heroic brother, nothing worse happened to Robert after the massive tree fell on the campsite. “All the people from the campsites around were running toward us, and there was this humongous tree on the ground,” Denise said.
As young Robert spoke about being hit by a tree, the boy said, “I thought I was like… so crazy. My arm was hurting so bad.”
He credited his brother for rescuing him and said, “I was so, like, thankful because if he didn’t do it, I’d be crushed and stuff.”
Following the accident, Robert was taken to the Riley Hospital for Children, and he walked away from the incident with only a broken arm and a story to tell for the rest of his life.
“The Putnamville Fire Department was amazing,” Denise said. “They kept him contained the whole way there.”
Robert also spoke about the fire department and said, “I was thought it was like cool because I talked with them for a little bit because I was saying, ‘Did you ever deal with kids like that?'”
Although one of them came back home from the camping trip with a broken arm, Denise and her family are still keen on visiting the campsite once again. And the next time, they will know that sometimes things might take an unexpected turn.
A word of advice that Denise gave others was: “Camping can be so fun and, in a moment’s notice, anything can change. Nothing could have prevented it. I’d say being prepared for a problem is best especially in an area with no cell service.”