Maybe those prayers reached their destination.
The St. Johns County boy who temporarily stopped breathing after a horrific e-bike crash last week is expected to regain his health in full — and eventually put his football helmet back on, doctors told his thankful father.
Parker Anderson, 12, of Fruit Cove, suffered a traumatic brain injury when he slammed into the asphalt after falling from his e-bike in Julington Creek last Monday evening.
The beloved Fruit Cove Middle School student — who lost his mom six years ago — remained unconscious for days before finally opening his eyes on Wednesday.
While still woozy and suffering from short-term memory loss, Parker’s relieved father, Jeremy Anderson, said his boy is recuperating nicely.
“They’re pretty confident that it will be a full recovery,” he told The Citizen Monday.
A video posted on a GoFundMe account set up to support Parker and his family shows the boy shooting baskets on a small indoor hoop in his hospital room over the weekend.
Parker was released from Wolfson Children’s Hospital over the weekend and has started intensive therapy at Brooks Rehabilitation.
That process, Jeremy said, could last for up to a month.
“He’s doing really well,” the father said. “He has a couple of little things to work out. Short-term memory. They read him a story then asked him some questions, then went back to the story and asked him some more questions, and he couldn’t quite figure it out. So short-term memory issues they’re going to be working on.”
Parker remains a bit unsteady on his feet and is still relying on a wheelchair for the time being.
“Once he starts walking, he’ll get going a little bit and all of a sudden he’ll start doing a crossover with his feet,” Jeremy said. “So there are some walking quirks he still has. But overall it looks really good.”
As he regains his strength — and his senses — Parker is already itching for liberation.
“He keeps asking to go home,” Jeremy said. “He’s ready to get out of the hospital, his friends are calling wanting to know when he can come hang out.”
The tough 12-year-old is also ready to get back on the gridiron. Doctors told Jeremy that the youth tackle football player for the Creeks Outlaws should be able to put the pads back on — when it’s safe.
“They said they don’t see why not. They said for the next 12 weeks you can’t go running, playing touch football with his buddies. He has to be really careful. But once everything heals up, he should be able to resume normal everyday stuff.”
The fundraising campaign had amassed roughly $85,000 as of Monday morning. Jeremy has cautioned other parents take e-bike safety seriously.
“Everyone thinks that this never happen to me,” Jeremy said. “That’s what I said. It’s Parker, he’s invincible. He’s a little Superman. Kid gets hit, he pops right back up but this time he didn’t pop right back up.”
