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2 Weeks After Creek Accident, Rodeo Star's Son Dies

Levi Wright, 3, son of Kallie and Spencer Wright, was taken off life support over the weekend
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2024 4:45 PM CDT
Updated Jun 4, 2024 10:05 AM CDT
Rodeo Star's Son Found Unconscious in Utah Creek
Saddle bronc rider Spencer Wright from Milford, Utah, waves to the crowd after winning the saddle bronc world championship during the tenth go-round of the National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in 2014.   (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review Journal, Josh Holmberg)
UPDATE Jun 4, 2024 10:05 AM CDT

A sad update out of Utah, where the 3-year-old son of rodeo star Spencer Wright had been clinging to life for the past two weeks after falling into a creek near his home. In a Monday online statement, Mindy Sue Clark, who says she's a close family friend, reported that Levi Wright died Sunday after being taken off life support, per CBS News and People. "After several sleepless nights, lots of research, multiple conversations with the world's best neurologists & millions of prayers we are here in the face of our biggest fear," mom Kallie Wright wrote on Facebook on Sunday afternoon. "Here soon I'll climb into bed with my baby and hold him as he falls asleep for the last time on this earth." Clark, meanwhile, is already missing the little guy she called "Beans." "Levi was the absolute best little boy," Clark tells People. "It's going to be tough navigating life without him."

May 23, 2024 4:45 PM CDT

Rodeo star Spencer Wright and his wife, Kallie, are asking for prayers for their 3-year-old son, who hasn't regained consciousness since being found in a creek on Tuesday. Levi is in critical condition in a Salt Lake City hospital. Mindy Clark, a family friend, posted a Wednesday update from his parents on Facebook that reads, "His sweet little brain was without oxygen too long and there is no coming back from that. 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." But a subsequent post held a glimmer of hope: "Don't give up on my boy just yet," it read.

The later post says that after a shift change, the new doctor "felt strongly that we needed to give him more time," though "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." Doctors plan to do an MRI on Friday or Saturday, CBS News reports.

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The boy had been playing on a toy tractor outside his home in Beaver County, Utah, when his mother ran indoors for a moment. When she came out, he was gone, and his tractor was no longer upright. Kallie Wright called 911, then jumped in the water to try to find him, Clark said. Levi was later found unconscious in the water about a mile away from home. Spencer Wright comes from a family of rodeo stars, per KTVX. His father, Bill, is in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, and his siblings compete in events. Clark said the support Levi's parents have received from the rodeo community this week "means the world" to them. (More Utah stories.)

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