Community Corner

Long Beach Boy Starting to Stabilize

Wrestling coach who visited the teen says he is moving his limbs after he was hit by an SUV earlier this week.


Abdul Bird, the eighth-grade Long Beach Middle School student who was hospitalized and listed in critical condition after he was struck by an SUV in Lido Beach on Tuesday morning, may be improving according to Cohen Children’s Medical Center at North Shore-LIJ and his wrestling coach.

Michelle Pinto, a spokesperson for the hospital where Bird was transferred after the accident, told Patch late Thursday that the 14-year-old boy is now in critical but stable condition. And Miguel Rodriguez, Bird’s wrestling coach at the middle school, said he visited him at hospital on Wednesday and that he showed signs of improvement.

“Abdul is improving a lot and doing much better,” Rodriguez told the Long Beach Herald. “He’s slightly moving his arms and legs, but he’s still unconscious; he hasn’t opened his eyes yet.”

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Bird was riding his skateboard headed to school to rehearse for a graduation ceremony that he was to take part in the next day when a motorist in a Mercedes-Benz SUV driving westbound on Lido Boulevard hit the boy, who was travelling in the opposite direction, at Greenway Road at 7:55 a.m., according to Nassau County Police Department.

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Bird, who was not wearing a helmet at the time, suffered a serious head injury and was initially transported to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was listed in critical condition. Later Wednesday, he was transferred to North Shore-LIJ.

The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and was not criminally charged, police said.


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