Family provides update on 8-year-old Highland Park shooting survivor Cooper Roberts
Cooper Roberts | Provided
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. - Cooper Roberts, the 8-year-old boy who was left paralyzed after being shot in the Highland Park Fourth of July parade mass shooting, remains in critical condition after undergoing his seventh surgery earlier this week.
Cooper, whose spinal cord was severed by a bullet, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, remains on a ventilator and a breathing tube at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, family spokesman Anthony Loizzi said in statement.
On Wednesday, Cooper underwent surgery to reclose the original bullet-induced tear in his esophagus.
"When he woke up on Thursday morning, there were initially positive signs such as no fever and he was breathing over the ventilator," Loizzi said. "As the day progressed, however, the spikes of high fevers, up to 104, returned. A CT scan revealed fluid building in his esophagus, lungs and now around his pelvis."
The Roberts family thanked the community for its outpouring of support for Cooper as he recovers.
"Please keep sending love and prayers to my son as he continues to fight as hard as he can," Cooper's mother, Keely Roberts, said.