A rodeo star’s 3-year-old son is brain dead after he drove a toy tractor into a river in Utah earlier this week, his heartbroken family has revealed.
Levi Wright, the son of globally ranked cowboy Spencer Wright, has been hospitalized in critical condition in Salt Lake City after he was pulled out of the river by rescue crews around 6 p.m. Tuesday night in Beaver County, ABC4 reported.
While the family had hoped for the best, Wright family spokesperson Mindy Sue Clark said that the boy is not expected to survive.
“Levi’s heart is beating on its own, he has a will to breathe but his sweet little brain was without oxygen too long and there is no coming back from that,” the boy’s parents said in a tragic update through Clark posted on Facebook
“We cuddled him all night and feel strongly that his spirit is no longer with us,” the post continued “We can’t be selfish and drag this out for days, he doesn’t deserve that. Shortly we will stop care and hold him close until his last breath on earth.
“My Baby, my beans, Mom & Dad love you always and forever!” the parents said.
Clark later told ABC4 the Wrights were still holding out hope for any signs that Levi could survive. The family has received so much support from the rodeo community and it “means the world” to them, she said.
Spencer Wright, 33, was ranked 35th in the world in 2023 by ProRodeo and comes from a family of renowned cowboys
Spencer Wright’s father, Bill Wright, is a ProRodeo Hall of Famer, and most of his siblings are accomplished riders who participate in events throughout the country, according to ABC4.
The family was the subject of a book “The Last Cowboys,” and have been featured in an episode of “60 Minutes.”
Earlier this year, Spencer Wright won the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and Rodeo in Mercedes, Texas.
“The entire ProRodeo community’s heart aches for the Wright family,” PRCA CEO Tom Glause said in a statement. “We will continue to hold them in our thoughts and prayers.”