"He wants to die, and I don't want him to feel like that," Mindy Carter-Shaw said of the Lehi man whose pipe bomb-style firework exploded Thursday as her son, Bridger Hunt, was riding his bicycle nearby. The shrapnel ripped open the left side of Bridger's torso and left his leg attached by only "a flap of skin," Carter-Shaw said.

"He offered to sell his house to help my son," Carter-Shaw said of the man, 46, whose name police would not confirm Sunday. She noted the man works with fireworks for a living and has told the family he will accept criminal charges for the explosion.

"I need people to know I am not angry," she said. "I will let the law do what it needs to do."

Authorities have said charges may be filed this week.

Bridger, who dreamed of becoming a professional skateboarder, was to undergo a surgery today that would determine whether his left leg would be amputated, Carter-Shaw said. Doctors have said he always will have to wear a brace and walk with a cane or walker if he keeps his leg, Carter-Shaw said tearfully at a Sunday news conference.

The shrapnel also tore his intestines, cut large blood vessels in his abdomen and shattered the bones in his pelvis and upper left leg. When Shaw arrived at Primary Children's Medical Center, doctors told her he had "passed away" twice and been revived, she said.

A cousin at the scene had moved a piece of Bridger's skin over one of his wounds, which slowed blood loss that doctors said would have been fatal otherwise, Carter-Shaw said.

Six surgeries later, Bridger is breathing through a respirator and cannot move or speak. He panics every few hours when his medication subsides and he awakes to find "a tube down his throat . . . and he's tied to the bed," Carter-Shaw said. Through weak nods and eye contact he has communicated that he remembers hurting his leg. After the explosion, he reportedly told bystanders, "I think I broke my leg. I'll see you dudes later," Carter-Shaw said.

She does not know how to tell him that his leg may never function normally again.

"I have to look my son in the eye and tell him . . . everything he's planned has to change," she said. "He still doesn't know he's lost something very important."

Unaware of doctors' predictions, Bridger's friends chipped in to buy him a new skateboard, which they signed.

"And I've got to . . . hand it to my baby," Carter-Shaw said.

Bridger will be in the hospital for about three more months, said his stepfather, Travis Shaw, of Orem. The family has no insurance to pay the $50,000-a-day bills, he said. They are accepting donations through an account at Zions Bank under the name of Bridger Nathaniel Hunt to assist with medical expenses.

He will go into surgery again today and will remain asleep for at least a few more days.

Carter-Shaw said she is intent on finding a way to allow Bridger to remain active and athletic even if he loses his leg.

"I'm going to grow from it, and I'm going to make sure my son's going to grow from this. . . . He's going to look at his body and say, 'This is freaking cool.' "

ealberty@sltrib.com

lwhitehurst@sltrib.com