Rodeo star Spencer Wright’s son, 3, miraculously wakes up in hospital days after driving his toy tractor into water and almost drowning
The toddler son of a rodeo star has woken up in the hospital for three days after nearly drowning while playing on their property.
Three-year-old Levi Wright drove his toy tractor into a river at their home in Milford, Utah, around 6 p.m. Tuesday and disappeared underwater.
Levi’s mother dove in to save him and then took him to the hospital where doctors restored his heartbeat, but he never regained consciousness.
However, it didn’t take long before Levi started showing signs of progress and tests were scheduled for the weekend to assess his brain function.
Levi Wright (in father’s arms), 3, the son of rodeo star Spencer Wright (right), was taken to hospital after driving his toy tractor into a fast-flowing river
Late Thursday night, Levi woke up, according to his mother Kallie Wright, who is at his bedside with her husband Spencer at Salt Lake City Hospital.
‘LEVI WAKE UP! I’m shocked, we don’t know much but the doctor said it was okay for me to get excited about that and I am! My baby is so cool!’ she wrote.
“He got a little wild, so we had to calm him down again, but my heart!”
Kallie added a few hours earlier that Levi had an MRI scheduled for Friday, which would provide more details about his condition.
Family friend Mindy Sue Clark said Levi’s EEG monitor showed activity when his sister Steeley called him during a video chat Thursday afternoon.
“The same thing happened when we showed him the dinosaur sounds from one of his favorite dinosaur books, and again when Kallie gave him kisses,” she wrote.
Spencer Wright’s family is among the most prominent in rodeo history, and his father, Bill Wright, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Spencer is ranked 35th in the world, and his siblings are also renowned athletes in the sport.
Late Thursday night, Levi woke up, according to his mother Kallie Wright, who is at his bedside with her husband Spencer at Salt Lake City Hospital.
Kallie added a few hours earlier that Levi had an MRI scheduled for Friday, which would provide more details about his condition
Clark said Wednesday that the family “received multiple small miracles” and that doctors were “surprised by the progress he has made.”
“He has a fever, so they’re keeping him very cold, which is hard to watch. All I hear him say is, ‘Mommy, I’m pretty cold,'” she wrote.
‘He will have an EEG to monitor any brain activity, but we haven’t heard much about what they see yet. They also gave him antibiotics.
‘We miss our other babies, mum hasn’t spent a night away from the baby yet, but Brae and Steeley are in the best hands!
“The doctors and staff here at the primaries have been excellent! We don’t know what the future holds. Please don’t let the prayers for my baby be darkened or his story become old news! Keep praying for him.”
When Levi drove into the river, the person who called 911 frantically told dispatchers that they couldn’t see him under the fast-moving current.
Kallie realized he had snuck away and run to the river, jumping into the current to save him, with her friend saying she was ‘the one who found him, she got him out’.
When Levi drove into the river, the person who called 911 frantically told dispatchers that they couldn’t see him under the fast-moving current.
Levi snuck away from his family in the toy tractor (pictured), and his mother dived into the river to save him after he disappeared under the current
On Tuesday, the family said Levi’s heart was “beating on its own” but he showed no signs of recovery
A massive response from rescue teams from the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office, the Utah Highway Patrol, the Beaver County Search and Rescue team and Beaver firefighters quickly responded to the scene.
Crews performed life-saving efforts before an ambulance took him to Beaver County hospital, and he was later flown by helicopter to Salt Lake City.
Clark told ABC4 at the time he was being treated at Salt Lake City Hospital, but unless he makes a dramatic recovery he was not expected to survive.
“He has the will to breathe, but his sweet little brain was without oxygen for too long and there is no recovery,” the family said.
‘We cuddled him all night and have a strong feeling that his spirit is no longer with us. We can’t be selfish and drag this on for days, he doesn’t deserve that.
‘Soon we will end his care and keep him close to us until his last breath on earth. My baby, my beans, mommy and daddy love you always and forever!”
Spencer Wright, ranked 35th in the rodeo world rankings, and his family said the outpouring of support they have received ‘means the world to them’
Clark told me earlier Fox13Now that after Levi was admitted to hospital, his uncle had tickled his feet for a reaction, which led to him ‘opening his eyes a few times’, but he made no further recovery.
“Even though Levi is such a sweet and gentle boy, he’s a boy through and through, he’s a cowboy through and through, he’s a Wright through and through,” she said at the time.
Clark described Levi as the “sweetest, kindest little boy,” adding, “He’ll tell you he’s a T-Rex, and he’s as strong as a T-Rex.”
ProRodeo CEO Tom Glause said in a statement: “The hearts of the entire ProRodeo community ache for the Wright family. We will continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”