Rodeo star Spencer Wright holding onto hope after 3-year-old son found unconscious in water a mile from home

Rodeo star Spencer Wright and his wife are making end-of-life preparations for their 3-year-old son after he was found unconscious in a creek, a close family friend said in updates posted on social media and confirmed to CBS affiliate KUTV. The boy had been playing on his tractor before he ended up in the water and a mile downstream. 

In an interview with KUTV, Wright family friend Mindy Clark said that Spencer Wright's wife, Kallie Wright, had run into the family's home in Beaver County, Utah, for just a moment, and that when she came back out, their son Levi, who just turned 3 in March, was gone. 

"[Kallie] saw his little tractor overturned and immediately dialed 9-1-1 and jumped into the water to find him," Clark said, adding that the family lives near a wash, or dry channel where water will flow through often after heavy precipitation. The Wrights will often drive through it in their truck, she said. 

Levi was later found unconscious in the water about a mile away.

"We don't know how long he had been in the water, but he had been carried quite a ways," Clark said. 

While the Beaver County Sheriff's Office did not disclose the child's name, they said in a press release on Tuesday that they received a call of "a child who had driven their tractor into the water." Police said that the person reporting the incident said the child drove their toy tractor into a river and had lost visual contact with them. Emergency responders were able to quickly locate him, the sheriff's department said, and he was eventually airlifted to Primary Children's Hospital, where Clark confirmed Levi was taken. 

In an update shared by Clark on Facebook on Wednesday, Kalle and Spencer said Levi's heart was beating on its own and he had a will to breathe, but that the situation was critical. 

"His sweet little brain was without oxygen too long and there is no coming back from that," according to the statement. "We cuddled him all night and feel strongly that his spirit is no longer with us. We can't be selfish and drag this out for days, he doesn't deserve that." 

They said that they would be stopping care "shortly" in that update and "hold him close until his last breath on earth." But then a few hours later as doctors entered the room to end Levi's care, they suddenly said that there may be hope. 

"Our doctor was a little taken aback by her exam as they came in the room to end care. She felt strongly that we needed to give him more time," the family said. "Now this doesn't mean that in 12 hours we won't be right back in the same position with him in my arms preparing for goodbye but it does mean we have time for a miracle. ... Don't give up on my boy just yet." 

In the latest update at about 9:30 p.m. local time, the family said Levi hadn't experienced much change, but that there had been "multiple small miracles" that surprised doctors. As of that update, the hospital was monitoring his brain for any activity and started him on antibiotics. They also plan to do an MRI either Friday or Saturday. 

"He was more responsive than anybody thought he would be," Clark told KUTV. "He was responsive to light touch." 

Spencer Wright, 33, is ranked No. 40 in the world in saddle bronc riding. He helped make history in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 2014, when he and three of his brothers qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo – and he, the youngest of the brood, won the world championship. He and Kallie have three children together, including a baby born last August.

In:
• Utah
• Drowning

Li Cohen

Li Cohen is a senior social media producer at CBS News. She previously wrote for amNewYork and The Seminole Tribune. She mainly covers climate, environmental and weather news.

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