Nic and Lindsey Currat tragically lost their 6-year-old son, Simon, to a snake bite, which sent him into cardiac arrest and left him in a coma. (Lindsey Currat) "He was proud of all those things," his mother vividly remembers.Simon was like most typical kids his age.
His backyard was his workshop, as his imagination would run as wild as his energy. He sometimes used old gutters as waterways or tracks for his Hot Wheels.
And he loved to plant fruit in the yard, hoping that someday it would grow into abundant trees.But this world of creativity and creation would be short-lived following a run-in with a rattlesnake, sending him into cardiac arrest and leaving him in a coma.The adventurous second-born of four set out on July 5 for a late afternoon bicycle ride after dinner.
He would tag along with his father, who was carting Simon’s 3-year-old sister in a bike seat across the Bluestem Prairie Open Space in Colorado Springs.Simon loved to explore the wilderness area with his dad as they could off-road the dirty, narrow paths dodging branches to the face and splashing in the occasional puddle."It’s rugged, and Simon had told my husband that he loved it because it was like a video game only in real life," Currat said.On this particular adventure, Simon decided to run ahead to look at a mile marker sign on the trail they were exploring during a stop for water."Rattlesnake!" he yelled in fear back to his dad.