Toddler shot on Lake Shore Drive out of coma, still on ventilator

A 1-year-old boy who was shot Tuesday on Lake Shore Drive has been removed from a medically induced coma, but remained on a ventilator Saturday.

Doctors at Lurie Children’s Hospital said Kayden Swann “continues to demonstrate positive improvements,” though he is still in critical condition in the pediatric intensive care unit.

While he’s still on a ventilator to “assist with his breathing and other critical therapies,” doctors deemed it safe to remove him from the coma, according to a statement from Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, medical director of the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit.

Swann was shot about 11 a.m. April 6 on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park after a road-rage dispute turned violent, police said.

Prosecutors said the altercation started when an SUV tried to merge onto Lake Shore Drive near Soldier Field and nearly struck the car Swann was riding in.

Jushawn Brown, a 43-year-old man in a relationship with Swann’s grandmother, was behind the wheel of Swann’s car and got into a verbal dispute with the SUV driver, which escalated when both men pulled out guns, prosecutors said.

Brown eventually drove away but the SUV driver still fired shots at the car, one of which pierced the rear passenger window and struck Swann in the head.

Brown was slapped with felony gun charges in connection with the incident and released on $5,000 bail.

The SUV driver has not been arrested.