It has been nearly five-and-a-half months since 4-year-old Cohen Liggett was run over by an industrial-style lawn mower. And yet, when ABC7 sat down to talk to his parents on Monday, what we witnessed was a happy, rambunctious child who refuses to be slowed down.
Wrestling his mom on the floor of their family's living room, Cohen displayed the kind of boundless energy you would expect from a child his age. But Cohen is not just any child, not since Aug. 30, when his left leg was severely damaged after he was hit by a lawn mower.
"We knew it was going to look different. It wasn't going to go back to exactly what it was before," said his mother, Jacki Liggett.
For the Liggetts, it was not immediately clear what their boy's future would look like, but they knew what they wanted for him.
"I started googling Paralympics. 'How do you sign up a child for Paralympics?' Because I was like, we need hope. We need to know what this is going to look like," Jacki said.
The solution was a surgery known as a rotationplasty involving a partial amputation, where doctors rotated his lower leg so Cohen's foot faces backwards, essentially becoming his new knee.
"The rotationplasty, we thought, was going to be the best outcome for him long-term," Jacki said.
After a month in the hospital, multiple surgeries, and a stint in a walker, Cohen was paired with a prosthetic, his second one, last month. He is now able to run and play again. The sky is the limit.
"He's very athletic and very coordinated. I think he's going to play some kind of sport. But just whatever he wants to do," said his father, Adam Liggett.
As he continues to grow, Cohen will need to be fitted with one to two prosthetics a year. A GoFundMe started in his name has provided the family some much needed relief.
"From the bottom of our hearts, it allowed our son to get up and be walking and jumping so much faster," Jacki said.
The Liggetts are now sharing their story to help others in similar situations.
"That's a huge part of why I started posting on social media. I wanted to be that glimmer of hope for another parent that was going to go through this in the future," Jacki said.
And while he is still in physical therapy several times a week, Cohen's next goal is getting back on his bike, without training wheels.