The father of Georgia high school quarterback Robbie Roper, who died in December at age 18, is speaking out about his untimely death.
It was initially reported that the talented player died due to complications from routine shoulder surgery, however, in a USA Today Sports interview published Wednesday, his father James Roper revealed the chain of events that led to his son's tragic death.
"I just wanted him remembered as a perfect kid. I just didn't want anybody thinking that he had some abnormality when they thought about him," James said when asked why he waited so long to address the cause of his son's death.
James told the outlet the 2022 college football recruit had urea cycle disorder (UCD), a rare genetic disorder that can result in elevated blood ammonia levels that become toxic, according to the Medical Journal of Australia. Something, he said medical professionals overlooked.
Patrick Moore, an attorney representing the Roper family who specializes in medical malpractice, told USA Today Sports that the disorder can be triggered by corticosteroids or can be set off by a surgical procedure – "fasting beforehand, anesthesia and physical trauma." Robbie underwent shoulder surgery on Dec. 14.
PEOPLE's request for additional comment from Moore was not immediately returned.
The weekend before Robbie's death, the family had traveled to St. Augustine, Florida for a family reunion, James told the outlet.
"He was fine,'' he said. "He was on the beach, laughing and carrying on and having a good time on Saturday. And then Sunday he started throwing up, and we just thought he had a stomach flu or something. You know, you don't rush to the hospital just for throwing up.''
When his condition worsened, Robbie's mom took him to urgent care, and then to a hospital. At the hospital – which the Roper family has declined to name – the medical staff allegedly insisted that Robbie was on drugs, even though the family said he was a good kid who never messed around with illegal substances.
"We called all of his friends and asked what did he use, and all of them said they'd never seen Robbie touch a drug. I mean, the kid was a straight arrow, 3.9 GPA. All the kid wanted to do all his life every day was play football and play Xbox. He never really hung out with friends and went to parties and all that. He was just a real quiet kid," said James.
While the drug tests came back showing nothing, additional tests showed that Robbie's ammonia levels were nearly four times the normal amount. He was then airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, where he was put on dialysis – but it was too late, according to James.
"If they would have been more aggressive in putting him on dialysis, he'd probably still be alive,'' James said of the first hospital.