Levi Wright, the 3-year-old son of rodeo star Spencer Wright, has died nearly two weeks after he rode his toy tractor into a Utah river, a family friend revealed.
The young boy, who was hospitalized in critical condition after the tragedy in Beaver Count on May 21, died Sunday soon after his family made the heartbreaking decision to take him off life support, family friend Mindy Sue Clark told People Magazine.
“Levi was the absolute best little boy. It’s going to be tough navigating life without him,” Clark told People.
Clark shared the news of the horrible loss in a social media post on Monday, writing that it felt like “someone ripped my heart out and squeezed it right in front of me.”
“I don’t want to focus on the bad or sad, even though it feels like someone ripped my heart out and squeezed it right in front of me. I want to focus on the many miracles we all got to bear witness to in those 12 days,” she wrote.
“Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people surrounded our best little buddy, lifted him up in prayer, and threw their loving arms around Levi and his family.”
Clark remembered Levi as “the most perfect 3-year-old there ever was” and said she was thankful to be his “Aunt Mindy.”
The boy’s mother, Kallie Wright, said in an earlier update that the family would be taking him off life support.
“I find comfort in knowing he will be restored to the perfect little boy he was & have the ability to do all the things he loves,” she wrote on Sunday. “I know there are Angels up there waiting to hold him until I can again.
“We love you baby beans and I can’t wait till the day you can ‘work the ground’ with me again.”
The bubbly toddler was not expected to survive but showed some promising signs early on despite being declared brain dead — and even woke up in his hospital bed, giving his family hope.
“Levi showed us just enough to buy us time for all of this,” Kallie Wright wrote in her Facebook post. “We prayed those things were him defying odds & proving to us that he wanted to stay here but we see now he wanted to give us time to find peace with letting him go,” his mother continued.
“During this time he brought out humanity across the nation, he dropped so many to their knees & reminded them what truly matters in this world,” the grieving mom wrote. “It kind of gives that T-rex strength a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?”
Levi’s dad, Spencer Wright, was ranked 35th in the world last year by ProRodeo, and is the son of ProRodeo Hall of Fame Bill Wright.
The Wright family was the subject of the book “The Last Cowboys” and was featured on “60 Minutes.”
