School superintendent’s youngest son dies from his injuries after being sucked down storm drain and swept under neighboring streets

The 10-year-old boy who was swept into a storm drain near his home after a tornado tragically died Saturday, according to a Facebook post from his father.

Dr. Jimmy Sullivan, the director of schools for Rutherford County — just outside Nashville — wrote in a message that his youngest son, Asher Sullivan, died Saturday at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital around 1:20 p.m.

The 10-year-old will be an organ donor and is therefore currently on a ventilator, according to local reports.

In the devastating social media post, Dr. Sullivan: “It’s 100% an Asher-type thing to remain selfless. In the coming days he will be given a walk of honor in the hospital and he will be celebrated for who he is: a hero!’

On May 8, Asher was swept into a storm drain as neighbors helped clear debris after a storm passed through the area.

“We are heartbroken, angry and every other emotion at the same time,” Sullivan wrote. “Please keep our family in your prayers as we navigate a world without the purest of us in it.”

He eventually emerged from a drainage ditch with another boy, but was seriously injured and placed on life support. An MRI done last Thursday concluded that the initial brain damage he suffered had progressed.

On Friday, when Asher’s mother and father met with neurologists, his vital signs collapsed, his body lost the ability to control temperature and his eye response stopped.

His father wrote, “Our sweet boy did what Asher has always done: he put others first. Kaycee and I no longer have to make an impossible decision.

“Instead, he made it for us while we were out of the room.”

The doctors performed a test to determine that Asher was technically dead.

“No parent should have to see this, but we knew it from our hearts: we had to do this. The results showed us what we already knew: that our dear Asher was already gone,” Sullivan wrote.

“We are brokenhearted, angry and all the other emotions at the same time.”

The family will commemorate the young boy’s life with a private ceremony and have asked for privacy as they grieve.

“Please keep our family in your prayers as we navigate a world without the purest of us in it,” added Sullivan, who also said of his son that he had led a busy life full of love and adventure.

“He visited all fifty states (something he was so proud of), visited four countries, played every sport imaginable, was the kindest/gentle soul I have ever met, loved EVERYONE and always lived his life on GO.

“Our nicknames for each other were ‘squirrel’ and ‘daddy squirrel’ because we were always going, going, going and couldn’t concentrate on one thing.”

The horror initially unfolded as the 10-year-old played with other neighborhood children in the aftermath of a tornado and severe storm that ripped through Tennessee, leaving three dead.

The tragedy for the Sullivan family comes just a year after Asher’s older brother, Declan, battled leukemia for four years before beating the disease in 2022.

Prior to his death, his father said that Asher’s “lungs were severely damaged, and he did not show much brain activity other than twitching.”

The horror initially unfolded as the 10-year-old played with other neighborhood children in the aftermath of a tornado and severe storm that ripped through Tennessee, leaving three dead.

As neighbors worked together to clean up the damage, Asher’s father said that “somehow it ended up in the storm drain and was swept under the streets of the neighborhood.”

Asher “eventually” ended up in a drainage ditch, he said, along with another boy who also lives on his street, eighth-grader Madden Moltz, who is expected to recover from his injuries.

The tragedy for the Sullivan family comes just a year after Asher’s older brother, Declan, battled leukemia for four years before beating the disease in 2022.