Boy, 7, left fighting for life after being thrown 100ft from Tate Modern is learning to walk again, family reveal
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy left fighting for life after being thrown 100ft from the Tate Modern viewing platform is learning to walk again.
The French youngster’s family said he has had his medication lowered, is feeling less pain and is trying to sing, more than a year after teen Jonty Bravery hurled him from the 10th-storey balcony.
The young boy, who was on holiday with his parents in London, suffered life-changing injuries after the fall on August 4 last year, including a bleed on the brain and multiple broken bones.
Bravery, who is now 19, is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempted murder.
In an update on the seven-year-old victim’s progress as he continues his recovery in his France, the boy’s family described how his condition has improved.
They said he is no longer allowed to go home on weekends, so family members spend seven days a week in hospital, adding that spending every night there is “very tiring because of the noise, and also very disturbing”.
The statement says: “Our son’s memory is once again greatly affected.
‘LESS PAIN’
“He no longer remembers what he did that day or what day it is.
“Despite everything, he continues to make efforts and progress: he begins to walk with a tetrapod cane while we hold him by the back of the coat for balance.
“He also has less pain, so the doctors were able to lower his medication.
“He tries to do more and more things with his left arm like holding his tube of toothpaste or his glasses case to close it.
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It adds: “He continues to recover his breath. He still speaks very slowly, but now speaks word by word and no longer syllable by syllable.”
“He tries to sing and make up songs with rhymes. He was able to start using the blowpipe with the rehabilitators to continue improving his breathing.”
In September, the family announced the boy could stand unaided, telling well-wishers in a statement: “We are already seeing new progress: he can at last stand on his legs without any help or support!”