The Long Island boy fighting double renal failure was named “Sheriff of the Day” Tuesday, days before his scheduled life-saving transplant surgery.
Wyatt Hooppert, 12, was sworn in as honorary sheriff of the day by Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr., with 50 police officers waiting for the boss of the elderly middle schooler, with 50 police officers lined up.
“give [Wyatt] The sheriff's responsibility that day means I can go home and relax now,” Toulon joked.
Wyatt dreams of becoming the first responder when he grows up, and is allowed to jump in and sit behind the wheels of many police vehicles.
He was also taken home K9 demonstrations and police escorts after the festival ended.
“It's so hard to get a smile from him, so to see how smiling he is, we'll tell you how happy he is,” his mother, Devan Hupert, told the Post.
“His first word was literally “cars,” he just loves cars,” she added.
His mother revealed that her son was born with one kidney and deteriorated over time, causing him to dialysis three days a week from February.
After sharing the news on Facebook, family friend Dawn Rice volunteered to be the first person to be tested for the match.
The doctors told the family not to get hope that it would be nearly impossible to find a match on their first attempt, but Rice eventually became the first and only person to be tested and returned as the perfect match.
“It was God's intervention,” Devan told the Post.
“It seemed like all my prayers were answered.”
The pint-sized sheriff of the day is scheduled for a transplant surgery in New York City on Monday.
