Xaiden Cornett spent less than a week in the hospital after a riding lawn mower backed over him July 31. (Photo Provided)

July 31 was a life changing day for the Cornett family of Marietta. What started out as a quiet Sunday ended up with a lifeflight to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Joelle Cornett explained how her 2 1/2-year-old son Xaiden was injured in a riding lawn mower accident in her backyard.

“We just want other parents to be mindful of how important it is to be careful with lawn mowers or any equipment because it could happen to anyone,” she said.

Her husband, Dakota, was out back on the riding mower with sons Xaiden and Braxton, 3 1/2. This was not their first time riding with their dad on the mower. When the boys got bored, Braxton headed for his toys near the house while Xaiden headed for a muddy pit in the corner of the yard.

Dakota continued to mow the lawn and was in a three-point turn when the accident happened.

Dakota Cornett naps with his son, Xaiden, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Xaiden underwent five surgeries after a lawn mower accident July 31. (Photo Provided)

“He turned to the right and had the wheel turned to the left. He looked right, then left and then behind him. As he backed up, the mower went over Xaiden’s legs,” Joelle explained. “He was initially taken to Marietta Memorial Hospital, where he was prepared for a life flight to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.”

Joelle and Dakota wrote a lengthy post on Facebook about the accident and how their family has handled the changes the last two weeks have brought about.

As they were at Marietta Memorial Hospital, Joelle broke through some of her shock.

“It finally hit me and I began to cry not realizing Bop (Xaiden) could see me. He reached his perfect hand up on my cheek and told me ‘Mommy, don’t cry’, which broke me,” she wrote. “Once Dakota was back in the room from calling my parents, I headed to the hallway and cried harder than I have ever cried. I will never forget the man in the dark blue scrubs that was walking down the hall who took time out of his day to give me a very tight hug and console this grieving mama.”

Joelle was the only one able to go with Xaiden on the flight to Columbus.

Joelle Cornett’s 2 1/2-year-old son Xaiden Cornett was life flighted to Nationwide Children’s Hospital after a lawn mower accident July 31. (Photo Provided)

“It was the longest 47 minutes of my life. About halfway through the flight, I looked into the sky which looked so beautiful (again a sight I can’t fully describe) and I prayed to God for the first time in a long time,” she said. “I prayed with every ounce of my being.”

She said Xaiden has had great doctors at both hospitals, noting it’s “a miracle” Xaiden wasn’t hurt more.

“Xaiden has lost his second and third toe on his right foot and one-third of his fourth toe. His big toe is broken and has been pinned and will have to have plastic surgery performed to help the skin. His pinky toe will remain perfect,” their post states. “There was a gash on through the bottom of his foot but has since been stitched up. His heel has been splinted to repair the resultant chip.”

They stated Xaiden’s left leg “lost only skin and fat and by the grace of God, had no damage to ligaments, tendons or bones and only a small portion of the calf muscle was removed which will heal naturally.”

“With plastic surgery, the skin graft on the calf and right foot will fill in the large voids left by the mower blade impact,” they wrote.

The first stage of his Integra graft was done Monday and the doctors want it to sit for three weeks. Six inches of skin from his thigh will be used to graft over the wound on his calf.

Joelle said her other two young sons are being mostly careful with their brother.

“My oldest (Braxton) is very aware of what’s happening, but even the baby (Maddox) has been careful with his brother,” she said. “(Maddox) yanked on one of the cords and realized it scared Xaiden and he hasn’t touched it one bit since.”

She gives credit to Xaiden’s uncle Briar for saving the boy’s life.

“As a mom, I was first aid and CPR certified for about 10 years, but it all went out the window. I knew you had to apply pressure and get a tourniquet, but I couldn’t do anything. I was literally frozen.”

She said Briar put incredible pressure on the boy’s leg to slow the blood loss.

“If it weren’t for that, I know it could have potentially been fatal,” she said, adding Xaiden didn’t even require a blood transfusion.

“We are so blessed by the community, our church family, our work families, and random people I’ve never spoken to before … everyone has been praying for us and supporting us,” she said. “That was my biggest fear of posting that on a public platform … the amount of shame … Mom guilt as a whole is the worst thing in the world, let alone my husband and I coming publicly that we made a mistake and we want you to learn from this mistake.”

She posted that she learned two important lessons:

“Lesson 1: Safety is a value that we must uphold as parents. We cannot interrupt our children’s natural urge to do dangerous things but it is our job to assure they do them carefully. Mowing the lawn is a common responsibility that every homeowner shares. Young children have no business being in the yard when we mow, no matter how much they want to.

“Just a few hours before we arrived at Children’s, we were informed that another child had arrived with even worse injuries at the hand of a parent on a mower. Newer model mowers have a safety function that shuts the blades off in reverse to prevent this very problem but there is no reward and far too much risk despite whatever safety measures are in place on the mower itself.

“An estimated 9,400 children are injured by mowers every year and over half of those are between the age of 1 and 5.

“Lesson 2: Every form of suffering has meaning. Finding it is the trick. Helen Keller once said: ‘Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.’

“We will endure and fight through this as a family and come out stronger than ever before. We have changed the way we look at safety, especially as it relates to lawn mowers.”

Joelle noted that since the mower would be a constant reminder of the accident, it was taken away before they returned from Columbus. A new mower … a push mower this time … was purchased in its place.

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