MINNEAPOLIS — The 5-year-old boy who was thrown from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America is "walking perfectly" and "loves being back (at) school."
The child's family posted an update on Landen's condition on their GoFundMe page.
Landen was thrown nearly 40 feet to the ground by Emmanuel Aranda, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for attempted first-degree murder. Of that 19-year sentence, Minnesota law mandates that he serve 12 of them, with 53 days off for time served.
Landen spent several months in hospitals recovering from the fall.
His story went viral and he received support from people across the world.
Landen returned home in August and "came home with a limp and uneven legs from a two-time broken femur, an open wound on his belly we were taking care of every night, and many follow up appointments and medications," according to his family's update.
Read the family's statement here:
Hello Landen's support team,
Landen's Family wants you all to know how well Landen is doing since coming home in August.
He came home with a limp and uneven legs from a two-time broken femur, an open wound on his belly we were taking care of every night, and many follow up appointments and medications. Since then he has had many physical therapies to work on his walking. Mom has been doing everything she can to speed up the healing of his wound and working toward getting off some of his medications. He is now walking PERFECTLY with even legs AMEN. The wound has finally scabbed over and new skin is growing, and we are still optimistic he will be off some of his medications soon.
He loves being back to school and going to kindergarten at the same school his twin brother and sister go to. He gets out of the car every morning happy and blows kisses all the way in! He's a strong, happy boy. When his mommy asks him if she can look at his wound or asks how he's doing, he always responds with "Mom, I’m healed, you don't need to ask me anymore." Landen loves life and Jesus! He tells people all the time when they get hurt, don’t worry, I fell off a cliff, but Angels caught me and Jesus loves me, so I’m ok and you will be too!
He has good memories of all the people who loved him and cared for him in the hospital, so to him follow-up appointments are fun! We have many coming up in December, so please keep praying. Landen knows people all over the world are praying for him and he loves all the cards he keeps getting in the mail. His whole family feels the love and are so grateful for the prayers and people like you who care so much about others! There was one bad person, but from that came millions of Good people!
Thank you so much for praying us home and please continue to pray for complete recovery as we are still healing!
We love you!
