SAN DIEGO (CBS / CNS) - A 12-year-old boy struck by a small plane as the pilot made an emergency crash landing at a Carlsbad beach on the Fourth of July remained hospitalized Monday in good condition according to a press conference held at Rady Children's Hospital by his parents and medical staff.
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Nicholas Baer, 12, was body-boarding with friends near the Encina Power Plant just after 3 p.m. Saturday when the single-engine Piper PA18 came down at the water's edge, grazed him and then flipped over nose-first, according to California State Parks officials.
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Medics took the boy to Rady Children's Hospital for treatment of a gash to his head. He was admitted to an intensive care unit, where he remained this morning with a positive prognosis, hospital spokesman Carlos Delgado said.
The 23-year-old pilot was uninjured. He told investigators the aircraft, which he was operating on behalf of an El Cajon company named Air Ads Inc., lost power for unknown reasons while towing an advertising banner over the coastline.
Physicians expect Nicholas to fully recover, according to neurosurgeon Hal Meltzer, who operated on the boy and said he is listed in good condition.
"He's (having) a fantastic recovery," Meltzer told news crews during a mid-afternoon briefing at the Serra Mesa-area pediatric hospital.
It was unclear what part of the airplane might have hit the boy, though officials believed it could have been the leading edge of one of the wings, Meltzer said.
Nicholas' parents, Bill and Janice Baer, said their son was in good spirits following surgery, though impatient to go home. He seemed most bothered by the fact that medical staffers had shaved his head, his mother said.
"He was so mad about his bald head," she told reporters, adding that several of his friends shaved their scalps in a show of solidarity.
The couple, who were not at the beach when the accident occurred, described their confusion and dread when they initially got word of what had happened. Janice Baer got the initial call -- from a friend who had heard that Nicholas had been hit by the aircraft's propeller -- and informed her husband as they hurried to the hospital.
The father said that when his wife said their son "was involved in a plane accident, it was like, `Are you sure you got that right?"'
The parents noted how incredibly fortunate Nicholas had been to avoid much more serious injuries after winding up in the path of a hurtling earthbound airplane.
"So I think he's a miracle dude," his mother said.