As 8-year-old Magnus Noe recovers, he has his eye on playing football again

A daredevil tree climb resulted in Magnus Noe taking a trip to Norton Children’s Hospital for emergency surgery.

Magnus, 8, and his family are from Louisville but now live near St. Augustine, Florida. They came back to Louisville for a week to escape Hurricane Milton. While at a friend’s house, Magnus decided to climb a 30-foot tree in the backyard.

Mollie Noe saw her son about halfway up the tree and started getting a little queasy.

“I was saying something like, ‘Get down, you’re going to break your arm,’” Mollie said.

Magnus listened to his mom and started working his way down the tree. And that’s when it happened. Magnus stepped on a branch — it snapped — and he came tumbling to the ground. Mollie estimates he fell about 15 feet and landed directly on his right arm.

“He hit the ground and yelled out, but he was not crying or screaming,” Mollie said. “I think he was in a little bit of shock. Luckily, the friends that we were with, the wife is an ER doctor. I ran to him, and she was able to cut his jacket off and immediately saw that his arm was completely broken.”

Magnus’s humerus, the bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow, had completely snapped. While it didn’t break the skin, the broken bone was obvious.

After Mollie’s friend created a splint, they rushed Magnus to North Children’s Hospital. In addition to the break, doctors couldn’t find a pulse in Magnus’s wrist. If not treated quickly, having no or little pulse can lead to losing a limb or other permanent issues.

Magnus needed emergency surgery to repair his arm and restore proper blood flow. Anthony L. Silverio, M.D., with Norton Children’s Orthopedics of Louisville, was the pediatric orthopedic surgeon on call. Dr. Silverio quickly made his way to the hospital.

“It’s always concerning when you have a fracture and can’t get a pulse,” Dr. Silverio said. “In many cases the artery is compressed, and fixing the break will restore blood flow, but there’s also a chance the artery could be torn, which can lead to significant injury. These situations require immediate surgery to determine and then fix the problem.”

Within a couple hours of the fall, Magnus was in surgery. Dr. Silverio was able to fix the break by putting pins in the bone. Now that the bone wasn’t pressing on an artery, Magnus’s pulse returned to normal.

“I feel very grateful that they moved very quickly,” Mollie said. “As a mom, I know it could have been a lot worse than it ended up being because of how fast they were. We’ve been in great hands.”

The following day, Magnus left Norton Children’s Hospital. He’ll be in a cast for about six weeks but hopes to return to playing football.

“And to climb more trees,” he said.

Mollie rolled her eyes.

“We might take a break from trees,” she said.