Rodeo star Spencer Wright’s 3-year-old son, Levi Wright, has died about two weeks after falling into a river in Utah while riding a toy tractor, a family friend said.
The boy who had been hospitalized in critical condition following the May 21 tragedy in Beaver County died Sunday, shortly after his family made the heartbreaking decision to remove him from life support. “He was so shy,” family friend Mindy Sue Clark told People magazine.
“Levi was such a great boy and it’s going to be hard going through life without him,” Clark told People magazine.
Clark shared the news of this tragic loss Monday Social Media Posts“I felt like someone was ripping my heart out right in front of me and clutching it,” she wrote.
“Even though it feels like someone ripped my heart out and crushed it right in front of my eyes, I don’t want to focus on the bad or the sad things. I want to focus on the many miracles we all witnessed during those 12 days,” she wrote.
“Hundreds of thousands, yes millions, of people surrounded our best little buddy, lifting him up in prayer and embracing Levi and his family in their loving arms.”
Clark remembered Levi as “the most perfect 3-year-old ever” and said she was grateful to be his “Auntie Mindy.”
The boy’s mother, Callie Wright, said in a previous update that the family plans to take him off life support.
“I find comfort in knowing that my son will return to being the perfect little boy he was and be able to do all the things he loves to do,” she wrote on Sunday. “I know that angels are holding him in their arms and waiting for me to do them again.”
“We love you, Baby Beans, and I can’t wait for you to be in the ground with me again.”
The lively toddler was not expected to survive, but despite being diagnosed as brain dead, he showed some promising early signs and gave his family hope when he woke up in a hospital bed.
“Levi has done enough to buy us all this time,” Callie Wright wrote on Facebook. “We believed and prayed that these things were proof that he would overcome his challenges and that he wanted to stay, but now we see that he just wanted to let go and give us time to find peace of mind,” Wright added.
“During this time he has brought humanity to people across the country, brought many to their knees and reminded us what is truly important in this world,” his grieving mother wrote. “Doesn’t it give a whole new meaning to the strength of that T-Rex?”
Levi’s father, Spencer Wright, is the son of Bill Wright, who was ranked 35th in the world last year in Pro Rodeo and was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.
The Wright family was the subject of a book called “The Last Cowboys” and was featured on “60 Minutes.”
