When your father is a retired major league pitcher who played for the 2008 World Series winner and your mother is a four-time contestant on the hit TV show Survivor, you’re bound to be tough. But 13-year-old Kyle Kendrick Jr. is stunning his star-studded parents with his tenacity and drive.

On Nov. 2, 2025, Kyle Jr. was walking his bicycle across the street not far from his home in Dunedin, Florida. The driver in the nearest lane waved him across, but the driver in the next lane did not stop, colliding into Kyle at a speed around 50 mph.

Kyle Jr. broke both femur bones in his legs. He also broke his jaw. Yet, within a month he was back in school. Just four months later, he was snowboarding with friends. Kyle Jr. had a goal to join his travel baseball team at a tournament in Cooperstown, New York, in June, seven months after the accident. He ended up playing it, plus the three tournaments prior.

The family credits Kyle Jr.’s remarkable recovery to two things: his insatiable appetite for success and the surgeons at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.

“I remember the emergency medical technician at the scene, where Kyle Jr. was hit, calling my wife and saying they wanted to take Kyle to an adult trauma center. We said, ‘No, we want him to go to Johns Hopkins All Children's.’ We felt safe there. We've heard great things. And that was the best decision that we could have made,” Kyle Kendrick Sr. elaborates.

A Lengthy Surgery

Kyle Jr. was flown by helicopter to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. X-rays and MRIs showed two broken femurs and a broken jaw, but amazingly, did not show any brain or spinal injuries.

Surgery was lengthy: six hours. It involved a team from orthopaedics and plastic surgery working seamlessly.

The first team to scrub in was orthopaedics. Ryan Fitzgerald, M.D., says treating a child with bilateral femur fractures is rare. “Seeing these two very large bones broken shows the severity of Kyle Jr.’s accident,” he explains.

The orthopaedic team, led by Gregory Hahn, M.D., who recently retired from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, used intramedullary nails to stabilize Kyle Jr.’s legs. The metal rods are surgically placed inside the center of the bone and act as an internal splint. For kids, Fitzgerald says they need to be about 10 years or older for the procedure “when their bones are big enough and the growth plates are developed enough,” he explains. “The beauty of the technology is, it’s extremely strong. It’s made from titanium and it's a large enough nail that you could technically bear weight on it immediately. So, you go from breaking the biggest bone in your body to being able to do physical therapy and put weight on your leg within days. It’s amazing.”

Fitzgerald adds the imperative part of having a procedure like this done at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, which specializes exclusively in pediatrics, is that the team works with an implant company that makes specialized rods designed for kids with smaller bones than adults.

“This intramedullary nailing has really sped up recovery times. It helps quite a bit with the healing process. Whereas, back in the day, these were devastating injuries where the child had their legs in traction and were bedbound for six to eight weeks, now we can potentially have them up and walking the same day of surgery and back playing the sports they love in less than a year,” Fitzgerald says.

In Kyle Jr.’s case, the scars were very small, as well, just 2–3-centimeter incisions near his hips where the nails were placed and two small incisions where the screws were put in to prevent the bone from rotating. “So, three or four small incisions to fix the biggest bone in your body. It's incredible technology,” Fitzgerald adds.

From there, the plastic surgery team was brought into the operating room including Jordan Halsey, M.D. Halsey explains her team’s role in Kyle Jr.’s recovery was to fix his broken jaw. She and her team were able to use a closed reduction for the mandibular fraction, which allows surgeons to realign and stabilize the broken bone segments in the jaw without making a surgical incision.

“We put what's called arch bars, which are kind of like metal braces," Halsey says. "We secure them with elastics and that allows the bones to move back into the correct position to heal. We can't necessarily always fix jaw fractures with plates and screws because we could put the permanent, adult teeth at risk.”

Within two to three weeks, the arch bars can be removed, and the only treatment is a soft food diet until the jaw can fully heal.

The rods in Kyle Jr.’s legs can stay in for the rest of his life.

Halsey says the coordination of care on the day of Kyle Jr.’s surgery made a meaningful difference. “I think if you're the #1 children's hospital in Florida (tied in 2026) for four years in a row, it's because it's not just one surgeon or one specialty doing a really good job. It's multidisciplinary care, especially in complex patients like we see in trauma cases. I think that there's a focus here on collaboration.”

“This is where a full village comes together to bring all that expertise into one place to deliver the best outcomes for these kids,” Fitzgerald adds.

After surgery, Kyle’s parents were given good news: The femur breaks were clean, and there were no growth plate issues. The healing process would be about six months.

“That sounded a little optimistic,” Kyle Sr. remembers thinking. His son’s turnaround would happen even quicker.

A Journey Toward Healing

Kyle spent a week at Johns Hopkins All Children’s healing from surgery. From there, he spent four months seeing physical therapists at Johns Hopkins All Children's Outpatient Care, East Lake.

Within 18 days, he was back in the batting cage in his yard alongside his dad, who also serves as his baseball coach. Kyle Jr. sat on a bucket while his dad bounced baseballs in his direction. Each time, Kyle Jr. picked them up and tossed them back at his dad. He didn’t flinch.

“He’s hurt but he’s playing catch on a bucket,” Kyle Jr.’s sister can be heard saying in amazement as she filmed the memorable moment.

“At first, we were worried about our son surviving," Kyle Sr. says. "Then, we worried about his healing. In that moment, rolling baseballs toward my son, I got emotional. I’m just so grateful. He’s a true fighter. A true survivor.”

“I’m just trying to be better than my dad at baseball,” Kyle adds with a laugh. “He's on his way,” Kyle Sr. pipes in. “But he’s still got a way to go.” “I’ll get there soon, dad,” Kyle jabs back.

“I'm proud of myself for doing the things I’ve done in the year after the accident. Like, I know some people would be scared to even walk on their legs thinking they’ll get hurt again. I just wanted to get back to having fun and playing baseball,” Kyle Jr. adds.

Kyle Jr. says while he sometimes feels sore, his injuries never hurt when he’s out on the baseball diamond. “I just forget about it and get into the game,” he says with stoic charm.

At the much-anticipated Cooperstown tournament, Kyle Jr. hit two home runs. The crowd loudly cheered “Kyle! Kyle! Attaboy, Kyle!” His team, rushing to meet him at home plate, couldn’t believe it. Neither could his parents.

“It’s a miracle. He’s the toughest person I know,” says Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Kyle’s mom, in awe.

“He’s an absolute rock star,” Halsey adds. “To go from seeing a kid on the hardest day of their life and then seeing them return to being this adept athlete, it’s incredible. I can't imagine anything holding Kyle back. He’s already built a level of resilience that is magnificent.”

Ryan Fitzgerald, M.D., and Gregory Hahn, M.D., are on the medical staff of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Inc. (“JHACH”), but they are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of JHACH.