‘Humbled beyond belief:’ Father of teen who broke neck in rodeo is grateful for support

Tragedy struck a Saskatchewan family just a few days before the New Year.

Sandy Cooper-Black was in Brooks, Alta., participating in a rodeo when he was bucked off a bronco. Cooper-Black, 16, suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed from the waist down.

As Cooper-Black recovers in a Calgary hospital after undergoing surgery, his family has received an abundance of support according to his father, Dan Black.

“Everyone that has reached out to help, I just can’t thank (them) enough,” Dan told Gormley. “I’m humbled beyond belief.”

Black said the support has allowed the ranching family from Consul to keep going. Among those who reached out are neighbours from Consul — one of whom launched a GoFundMe — as well as people from the nearby community of Maple Creek.

The GoFundMe has raised more than $100,000 so far.

“There’s been fundraisers and hockey games on the local level and even outside of what we’d consider our local area,” Dan said. “They had fundraisers over at Gravelbourg even, and they wouldn’t even know who Sandy is.”

Musician and family friend Colter Wall announced on Instagram that all proceeds from his album Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs would go towards Sandy and his family.

Sandy’s status

Sandy is currently able to speak and breathe on his own.

His father said that in the last week, bit by bit, Sandy was able to regain feeling in his arms. But Sandy told Dan that manoeuvring his left arm feels “like trying to lift 50 pounds just to make it move.”

“The connection is still there,” said Dan. “And that gives us nothing but more hope that as the swelling continues to go down, he’ll start to get more sensation back and more control.”

Dan said Sandy is in the hospital with at least one other family member at all times to help feed him and look after him.

“It is something like I’ve never seen before,” Dan said. “All you can do is just keep going. It’s pretty tough some days when you go in there and see this young fella that you just love to death and would trade places with him in an instant and you can’t do anything about it except show up and be as much support as you can be.”

Dan said the family is hoping for a full recovery but they know just how difficult that would be.

“We have to learn to be patient,” he said. “They told us that and that’s going to be a task.”