An 11-year-old boy who was seriously injured in last week’s deadly bus crash in New Jersey — asking his dad, “Am I going to die?” — has received a surprise gift from the New York Rangers, according to a report.
Brendan O’Callaghan smiled for the first time in days when presented with a hockey stick signed by his favorite player, goalie Henrik Lundqvist, as well as a card from the team, northjersey.com reported.
The Paramus fifth-grader doesn’t remember Thursday’s crash, which killed his teacher, Jennifer Kennedy, and one of his classmates, 10-year-old Miranda Vargas, during a class trip to Waterloo Village.
“His first words to me were, ‘Daddy, am I going to die?’” his father, Arnie O’Callaghan, told the news outlet Sunday. “I said, ‘No, your friends are here, you’re not going to die.'”
The young hockey fan remains hospitalized at Morristown Medical Center with a fractured temple bone, broken collarbone, punctured lung and a bruised orbital bone, his father said.
“He asks me how to escape from this dream. He grabs my ear, touches my face and asks if this is real,” O’Callghan said.
“He feels like he’s in a bad dream,” he added. “My son has no recollection — he asks if he missed the trip to Waterloo Village.”
O’Callaghan said his son had formed a bond with his tragic teacher after her dog died at the beginning of the school year.
“We had just got a dog, and he asked her if he could send pictures to her. She just started crying,” he said.
O’Callaghan, a police officer in Dumont, New Jersey, said he was driving on Route 4 in Hackensack on Thursday when he received a call from a friend.
“I can hear my wife hysterical in the background,” he said.
O’Callaghan’s friend told him there had been an accident involving a Paramus school bus, but his wife, Jaclyn, didn’t know if their son was involved.
When O’Callaghan saw a police car with its emergency lights on, he turned on his hazard lights and followed the car to Route 287, where other vehicles led him to Morristown Medical Center.
“I was helpless at that point. I was pacing back and forth and started seeing some familiar faces of other officers who had kids at the school, other parents. I started panicking,” he said.
Finally, a law enforcement friend told him that Brendan was alive.
“They asked me if my wife was on her way,” he said of hospital workers. “I asked if they had my son. They said they still don’t know.”
Several minutes later, his son was identified and O’Callaghan was taken inside to see him. Brendan touched his dad’s face to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
The boy really thought he was dreaming when his hockey coaches orchestrated the presentation of the Rangers gift, which included a card that read: “You’re in our thoughts and our prayers. Best wishes, the New York Rangers.”
“It was the look on (my) son’s face when he received it, it enlightened everyone,” O’Callaghan said, according to NJ.com. “It was a light of hope.”
