WELLINGTON, Colo. -- Ten-year-old Alex Romero is recovering after a bike's break lever impaled his right side, centimeters away from his major organs.

Romero, of Wellington, said he was riding his bike Tuesday night near his home when he jumped off a curb and fell, reported KMGH-TV in Denver. As he fell, the bike's break lever rotated and entered his abdomen. The lever pierced his right side just above the hip.

"We were bunny-hopping this little curb. It was wet and rainy and my foot slipped," Romero said. "I looked down and saw this bike lever that went up my gut."

Romero's friends ran for help, and a firefighter who happened to be driving by dialed 911.

Romero's father ran to his son's side, and instead of trying to pull the lever out, he cut the cable attaching it to the bike.

"I didn't want any bleeding. Just wanted to leave it in there till we got to the hospital and got X-rays," Ronnie Romero said.

"I instantly went into shock. The firefighters asked me to stand back so he couldn't hear me," April Romero, Alex's mother said.

Alex Romero was rushed to the Poudre Valley Hospital, where trauma surgeons ordered a CAT scan to assess the damage to his organs.

The CAT scan revealed that the lever had missed all major organs.

"It was good," Alex Romero said. "It was centimeters away from my organs."

Ronnie Romero said he will keep the brake lever, engrave it with a date, and keep it as a reminder that his son is one very lucky young man.