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Alex Moscrip, 7, of unincorporated Johnsburg is fighting for his life following a collision Wednesday between his electric motorbike and an SUV.
It will be at least three months before he will be home again but he is expected to come home, Alex’s father, Brad Moscrip, said Sunday.
“Considering how bad he was, he’s made some big strides in only a [couple] of days. It’ll be a very long road,” Moscrip said.
Emergency responders were called to a crash about 9:50 a.m. Wednesday in the 5200 block of Lake Street in between Johnsburg and McHenry. Alex was riding a Razor MX350 electric-powered dirt bike when a 2018 Toyota SUV hit him in the intersection of North Lake Street and West Pleasant View Drive, according to information from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.
McHenry Township Fire Protection District firefighters immediately began providing advanced lifesaving measures. Alex was flown to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
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Once there, surgeons removed a section of Alex’s skull to help relieve the pressure in his brain, Moscrip said.
Although he’s being kept sedated, Alex is responding to stimuli to his feet and hands, and may soon come off a ventilator. When doctors reduce his drugs, Alex seems to breathe on his own, Moscrip said.
“It is a lot, and I do not know how to thank all of these people. It is amazing.”
— Brad Moscrip, father of Alex Moscrip
“That is a positive thing. They thought he would be on that for a while. But he is not going to be home for at least three months,” Moscrip said – six more weeks at Maywood and six weeks in a rehabilitation center.
He and Alex’s mother, Aleksandra Romanska, have been with Alex since he was taken there Wednesday. His two older brothers, both students at Johnsburg High School, are staying with family.
“The team of [doctors] are surprised how much of a fighter he is and how quickly he is responding to their tests. Nothing else was injured on him except the skull fracture, amazingly,” Moscrip said.
The community also has stepped up to fight for Alex.
Johnsburg resident J.D. Sylvanus set up a GoFundMe, Support Alex’s Road to Recovery. It is being shared in Canada, where Brad Moscrip‘s extended family lives, he said.
Other area businesses have stepped up to help.
Ann Martin, owner of Spring Grove-based Tropical Chill-Hawaiian Shaved Ice & Ice Cream, sent a truck to Johnsburg on Friday to help raise money and plans to continue to give 15% of sales in Johnsburg to the fundraiser.
Fox Lake-based Ultimate Detail contacted Sylvanus, offering the family 10% of boat cover sales for the next two weeks, Sylvanus said.
Owen Flores, a minor league hockey player from Antioch, saw the GoFundMe post. In the photo, Alex is wearing gear from Flores’s team, the Niagara IceDogs. Flores promised to “arrange something with mom and dad” for Alex, Sylvanus said.
Moscrip thanked everyone in the community for their support, whether that is donations to the GoFundMe or the phone calls and messages.
“It is a lot, and I do not know how to thank all of these people. It is amazing,” Moscrip said.
He also wanted to assure the driver of the SUV that there is no ill will.
“We feel so bad for the family who was also in the accident. We can’t imagine what they are going through right now. ... They should know that,” Moscrip said. “It was an unfortunate thing that happened.”