By JESSICA SIEFF
Niles Daily Star

Bob Cowan, owner of the State Line Dairy Queen restaurant in Niles, was hospitalized Wednesday after a fall from the restaurant’s roof.

News of Cowan’s fall circulated through the community as well as the Four Flags Area Chamber of Commerce, of which he is an active member of the board of directors.

He was taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend and is being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit after suffering serious injuries in the fall.

As of Friday morning, the hospital’s official update on Cowan’s condition remains critical.

Cowan’s son, Ken, said on Friday his father was outside on the roof of the building Wednesday changing filters for the restaurant’s heating system when he fell from the second story of the structure.

“He fell onto his head,” he said. “It’s a pretty massive head injury.”

Cowan is currently in a medically induced coma “to keep the pressure (of the brain) down,” Ken said, and doctors said it would need to be monitored for 72 hours.

Once he is taken off that medication and brought out of the coma, Ken said the extent of his father’s injuries would become clearer. But he’s optimistic that “things are going in the right direction, it seems to be,” he said.

Cowan’s wife, Pam, has been by her husband’s side and is exhibiting real strength, her son said.

“We have lots of friends and family from church to lean on and we’re real thankful for that,” Ken said.

Next week, Ken expects to have more information, when his father is taken off of the medication that is keeping him in his coma.

Still, he said, “It’s going to be a long hard road to recovery.”