The father of a 10-year-old boy who was swept into a storm drain last week has given a heartbreaking update on his son’s condition.
Asher Sullivan from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was playing with his friends when a violent storm swept through the state that saw hailstones the size of golf balls.
The little boy “got caught” in the torrential conditions, which killed two people, and was hurled into a drainage ditch “under the streets”, according to his father Jimmy.
He managed to trudge his way out of the ditch before he was administered CPR and rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville for treatment.
Sullivan sustained a herniated brain, causing damage to “just about all areas” of the organ, Mr Sullivan said.
His father, the director of schools at Rutherford County, has been giving regular updates on Facebook of his son’s condition since the incident last Thursday.
In his most recent address on Tuesday evening, Mr Sullivan described the bleak nature of the situation.
“Asher’s brain is severely damaged. The reality is that the things Asher could do before, he will not be able to do if he recovers (without unexplainable healing),” he wrote.
“We will love and cherish any version of Asher we are blessed to keep if that is what is best for Asher,” he added.
He listed several different prayer requests including for his son’s brain swelling and herniation to resolve; for him to start breathing on his own again; no further negative changes; and his pupils to show greater response.
A day earlier, he wrote that he and his wife Kaycee “were woken up at 2:00am this morning and told Asher stopped having any breaths on his own and that his eyes weren’t responsive anymore”.
“We had planned to have some rough conversations this afternoon,” he added.
By 12noon on Monday, Mr Sullivan said that doctors spotted slight movement in one of his son’s pupils. However, “blood pressure has been an issue and things seem to get worse at night so keep the prayers coming,” he pleaded.
It comes as 11-year-old Yousuf Ayesh, who was on the same floor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center as Sullivan, died on Tuesday morning.
The fifth grader was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer months prior, which caused its tissue to swell and his body to shut down, according to a GoFundMe page set up by Murfreesboro Muslim Youth.
A candlelit vigil in memory of the little boy is scheduled for Friday evening at his school, Black Fox Elementary.
