Parade victim in online plea: ‘just glue me back together’
MADISON, Wis. — Friends and families of the roughly 50 people, including many children, hit by an SUV that sped through a Christmas parade in a suburban Milwaukee downtown say they suffered life-threatening injuries, with some clinging to life.
A young girl who is a member of a dance troupe struck by the SUV, a moment captured on cellphone video, woke up Monday and told doctors, “just glue me back together,” according to her GoFundMe fundraising page organized by a family friend.
“No child or parent should have to endure this amount pain and suffering,” the girl’s mother, Amber Konhke, posted Tuesday afternoon.
The fundraising pleas detail the extent of some of the injuries from the incident that has left five dead so far and 48 hurt. The suspect, Darrell Brooks Jr., was scheduled to make his first appearance in court on Tuesday.
Konhke’s daughter Jessalyn is shown smiling directly at the camera on one GoFundMe page, wearing a white Santa hat and holding matching pompoms. She is standing alongside other girls on the Waukesha Xtreme Dance team in a picture taken moments before she was struck.
Jessalyn is “fighting for her life,” according to the fundraising account established by family friend Oscar Luna. She lost a kidney, broke her pelvis and has damage to her liver and lungs, Luna said.
“This holiday season will be a brutal one for them,” he said of their family.
In an update posted Tuesday morning, Luna wrote that she had woken up briefly Monday.
“She is not fully aware of the severity of her injuries but managed to say, ‘just glue me back together,’” he wrote. “Only a child could reference themselves as a little doll in this situation.”
Julia, who was also marching with her dance team and whose last name also isn’t given, “is in the fight for her life,” suffering from brain trauma after being hit, her fundraising page established by family friend Jen McCarthy says.
“Everyone that knows this little girl knows what joy she brings to the world,” the post says. “She has a heart of gold, a smile that can light up the room and is loved by so many.”
Brothers Tucker and Jackson Sparks were among three sets of siblings hospitalized after being struck by the SUV, and they remain at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, according to an online fundraiser organized by a cousin.
Tucker, 12, has head injuries but is recovering, and Jackson, 8, suffered a more serious brain injury and “needs a miracle,” according to Alyssa Albro, the niece of the boys’ parents, Aaron and Sheri Sparks.
“The entire family is devastated,” Albro wrote. She said the boys’ parents are at their bedsides.
Aidan Laughrin, a senior at Waukesha South High School, was hit while performing with the marching band, suffering fractured ribs, according to an online fundraiser.
The family is “tough but the road ahead is going to be tough too, both physically and emotionally,” the organizer posted.
Another band member, saxophonist Tyler Pudleiner, also was struck and has undergone two surgeries since Sunday. “He has a long road to recovery,” wrote Joane Chmiel, one of two people raising money to help Pudleiner.