A 9-year-old kid in England has died, years after his father was convicted and sentenced to prison for assaulting him, leaving him brain damaged and blind.
According to the BBC and Metro UK, North Yorkshire Police have launched an investigation into Bradley Nelson’s death on Oct. 22 from cardiac arrest while in the hospital.
Nelson was left crippled and unable to walk, communicate, or feed himself after being attacked by his father, Darren Spreadbury, at their Whitby home in April 2016, according to media reports. The attack also blinded the 7-month-old, who was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
“Bradley was blind because [Spreadbury] shook him so hard that he snapped his optic nerve and there was a can of Coke’s worth of blood between his brain and his skull,” the boy’s mother, Sharon Boocock, told the BBC.
Spreadbury was found guilty of grievous bodily injury with intent in 2018, after scans revealed that Nelson’s brain impairments were caused by shaken baby syndrome, according to the BBC.
According to Metro UK, he received a 10-year restraining order as well as a four-year prison sentence. According to a GoFundMe campaign set up by one of Boocock’s buddies, Spreadbury completed his term after two years.
“When they said it was an unexplained, non-accidental head injury, I was like, ‘What are you on about?'” Boocock remembered the events that led to Spreadbury’s arrest. “It actually took me a long time to believe that they were right.”
Nelson returned home from the hospital following his first diagnoses in 2016, but he was hospitalized again in 2022 for severe sepsis and required many surgeries, according to the GoFundMe page.
Boocock told the BBC that she spent much of her life caring for her son due to his injuries, but she added that Nelson was “always smiling and happy.”
“I couldn’t go anywhere after [5 p.m.] because Bradley would come home from school and that was me housebound,” she remembered.
The 9-year-old was hospitalized again on October 21 after acquiring a virus, according to the GoFundMe page. He later experienced a severe epileptic seizure and two heart attacks.
“I got to sit with him for 10 minutes and then he had another massive cardiac arrest, and they just couldn’t get him back,” Boocock told Metro UK about her son’s death.
According to the BBC, police have revived the case and will investigate to determine whether additional charges should be made.
“We have been made aware of the death of a nine-year-old boy from the Whitby area, who sadly passed away in hospital on October 22,” said a North Yorkshire Police spokesperson. “The child had complex medical needs, and an investigation into the cause of his death is currently underway, reflecting due process in such circumstances.”
The GoFundMe campaign set up on Boocock’s behalf to raise funds for Nelson’s funeral has raised almost £8,000 (about $10,000) to date.
“When Bradley was hurt, Sharon became his eyes, voice, life force, and fiercest advocate,” the fundraiser organizer said. “Sharon is the epitome of ‘a mother’s love.’ As Sharon’s best friends, we want to mention that she inspires us. She’s a warrior. “She is everything we want our mother to be.”
North Yorkshire Police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.