After being shot during the July 4th Highland Park parade shooting, an eight-year-old boy’s family revealed that he has been “paralysed from the waist down” and will likely never walk again.
Cooper Roberts’ spinal cord was damaged during the incident, which killed seven individuals and wounded more than 40 others. The event also injured his twin brother and mom.
In a statement a family spokesperson Anthony Loizzi stated, it’s going to be a new normal for him moving forward. It seems like he’ll have substantial problems moving ahead, particularly walking.
Cooper was aware for the first time since the shooting on Friday, and he was sedated. He was also taken off a ventilator, although he is claimed to be in a lot of agony.
Doctors have now determined that Cooper would most likely never walk again given the seriousness of his spinal cord damage.
At this moment, the physicians do not believe he had any brain damage or cognitive impairment as a result of the incident, Loizzi remarked.
Cooper has been begging to see his twin brother, Luke, and his dog, George, now that he is conscious.
Luke, Luke’s twin brother, was also hospitalized with shrapnel wounds in his lower body but was released after surgeons removed part of the debris but were unable to eliminate all of it.
Keely Roberts, the boys’ mom and the head of a neighbouring school district, was wounded in the legs and feet, Loizzi said over Zoom.
Jason Roberts, their dad, who was also in the march, was unharmed.
The little kid who has been characterised as a “very active” boy with a love of baseball and a passionate Milwaukee Brewers fan.
During Friday’s game, the Brewers put a jersey with the Roberts family name on the back of their bench.
His mom, who had at least two operations herself, was so distressed by Cooper’s situation that she requested being released on Wednesday – earlier than doctors thought was appropriate until her bleeding was under control so she could be with her son in the children’s hospital, according to Loizzi.
Loizzi explained that after her second operation and learning that Cooper’s spinal cord had been severed, she informed the physicians and nurses that they should either release her or she’d walk out on her own.
The child has had multiple surgeries, including one on Wednesday night in which surgeons ‘finally closed his belly,’ according to the statement.
Loizzi described the boy’s healing as “fighting as hard as he can.” The whole family, including four older sisters, was ‘heartbroken but focused on Cooper,’ he added.
He added that it’s been a really difficult period for all in their group, noting that he had not yet been informed of the seriousness of his twin’s illness.
Loizzi expressed that Cooper and his twin brother Luke ‘liked the parade’ and had previously attended the event, but he did not understand where they were on the parade route when the bullets were fired.
Cooper’s elder sister described them as “close pals, partners in crime.”
‘There’s nothing this boy can’t achieve, and there are no words to describe the amount of kindness within him,’ she continued.
Friends of the family set up a GoFundMe page to aid with their medical expenditures, and they have so far raised $1.1 million.
In the July 4th incident, shooter Robert Crimo, 21, opened fire from a roof and targeted parade goers, injuring seven people and injuring more than 40 others.
Irina McCarthy, 35, and her husband Kevin McCarthy, 37, were among those slain, as was their two-year-old son, who was retrieved from beneath his father’s corpse.
Dr. David Baum, an obstetrician in Highland Park, was there with his wife and kids to witness his two-year-old grandson participate in the march. When gunfire broke out and others fled, he dashed into the conflict to assist the victims.
Baum recalled witnessing people with ‘wartime’ and ‘unspeakable’ wounds in an interview.
Crimo, who was captured late Monday July 4, used a rifle’similar to an AR-15′ to shoot more than 70 shots into a throng assembled for the parade in Highland Park, an upscale suburb of roughly 30,000 on Lake Michigan’s shore, according to police.
Lake County State Attorney Eric Rinehart announced on Tuesday evening that he has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder. He stated that ‘dozens’ of further charges would be filed, and that he expects to sentence Crimo to life in jail.
