‘He Really Is A Fighter’: 13-Year-Old Continues Recovery After Crashing Bicycle Into School Bus

A 13-year-old Ponca City teen continues his recovery months after crashing a bicycle into a moving school bus.

It happened on April 2 at the intersection of Prentice Road and East South Avenue, east of Ponca City around 4 p.m.

Family said Julian Aguilar was at a best friend’s house and riding a bicycle down the driveway. Julian lost control while riding down a hill at the end of the driveway and crashed into a Ponca City school bus.

Eight students were on the bus at the time of the crash. Neither they nor the bus driver were hurt.

Related: 12-Year-Old Loses Leg After Crashing Bicycle Into Ponca City School Bus

Aguilar has since been transferred to Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital near Saint Louis, MO for rehab.

Agular’s mother said his recovery is going remarkably well.

“He’s able to hold himself up right now,” Ashley Aguilar, Julian’s mother said. “He does have his pelvic (bone which) was broken, he has like four different types of screws in there.”

It’s nowhere but improvement now in Julian’s recovery. Doctors did have to amputate his right leg.

“It started out (with a) above the knee amputation and then just the blood flow wasn’t going, wasn’t coming down, so eventually (doctors) took more and more and more,” Ashley said. “They actually had to take some of his pelvic out.”

For an avid basketball and soccer player, that was a big blow.

“He was very emotional about it,” Ashley said. “Then he just kind of like stopped and he was just like, ‘Ugh, well ya’ took my good leg, now I’m a lefty.’”

Family credits community support for helping get Julian through.

From Air Evac to nurses celebrating his 13th birthday, even Carolina Panthers football star and OSU Alum Matt Ammendola reached out.

“Just know that I am praying for you like crazy right now, I heard what happened,” said Ammendola in a video posted to Facebook in April. “There is a lot of people out there that have you in their hearts including myself. You just (have to) keep fighting and be strong.”

Julian is inspired, no doubt, to come home. But who’s really inspired is an entire community who together have become #jujustrong.

“To see where he was then and all the unknowns to now, it’s like a miracle in some aspect,” Ashley said. “He really is a fighter. He really is.”

It’ll be a couple of months before Julian is released. When he is. Julian will be able to go directly home to Ponca City.