SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Levi Wright, the 3-year-old boy who fell into a fast-moving creek in southern Utah last month, has died after being taken off life support.
Levi, the son of rodeo star Spencer Wright, died on Saturday, a spokesperson for the family wrote on social media. Over the weekend, the child’s mother, Kallie Wright, posted on Facebook that the family decided to take the toddler off life support.
“Here soon I’ll climb into bed with my baby and hold him as he falls asleep for the last time on this earth,” Kallie Wright wrote.
She added: “We will miss him every second of every day down here but feel without unwavering doubt this is the best thing we can do for him.”
Levi fell into a creek in Beaver County, in southwestern Utah, while riding his toy tractor on May 21. Emergency crews pulled the child from the water roughly a mile downstream, and a helicopter flew him to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
As his family initially feared the worst, the boy clung to life. When he briefly awoke from a coma days after the accident, it gave his family — and the many people across the world who’ve followed Levi’s story — hope for a recovery.
But brain scans brought news that left the family “shattered,” as Kallie Wright wrote in one of her several social media updates. Last week, attempts to wean Levi off a breathing tube and sedation were unsuccessful.
According to the boy’s mother, the decision to take him off life support came after several sleepless nights, days of research, and multiple conversations with top neurologists.
“Levi showed us just enough to buy us time for all of this,” Kallie Wright wrote. “We prayed those things were him defying odds and proving to us that he wanted to stay here but we see now he wanted to give us time to find peace with letting him go.”
Mindy Sue Clark, the family spokesperson, wrote on social media that Levi’s journey over the last two weeks touched the lives of thousands of people across the world.
“This baby boy moved mountains the last 12 days,” she wrote. “He brought so many people together. In a world so dark, we got to see light at the hands of a child. He’s everything his mom and dad could’ve wanted him to be.”
As part of the outpouring of support, a benefit auction was created to help the Wright family. It features dozens of items, including horses, rodeo gear, and a painting of Levi.