Rodeo star Spencer Wright and his wife Kallie suffered an insurmountable loss on June 3rd when their 3-year-old son, Levi, passed away.
On May 21, Levi was involved in a horrible accident when he rode his toy tractor into a river in Utah, where his family resides. 9-1-1 was called, and local law enforcement found the toddler a mile downstream, unconscious.
He was life-flighted to a Salt Lake City-area hospital and was in the ICU fighting for his life for nearly two weeks.
Because of Spencer’s professional rodeo career and his wife’s openness on social media, they spread their story in a way they did not imagine.
He was immediately in critical condition and pronounced brain dead shortly after. The family had come to terms that he would never recover from his injuries, due to his brain being without oxygen for too long.
There was a glimmer of hope on Friday, May 24 when Levi woke up despite being declared brain dead.
“LEVI WOKE UP! I am shook, we don’t know much but the doctor said it was okay for me to get excited about that and I AM! My baby is so tough!” Kallie wrote on Facebook.
Unfortunately an MRI the following day wasn’t the positive update they were hoping for.
“The MRI wasn’t good, we’re shattered but it is just images that suggest a certain quality of life,” she wrote. “Our real teller of all will be what Levi does over the course of a few days. Please continue to pray! I’m not giving up on my baby just yet.”
In a Facebook post on June 2, Kallie revealed they had made the decision to take Levi off life support.
“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,” she wrote. “Levi showed us just enough to buy us time for all of this. 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.”
Kallie continued, “Soon I’ll climb into bed with my baby and hold him as he falls asleep for the last time on this earth.”
A family member confirmed that Levi passed away on Sunday, June 2.
“The most perfect three year old there ever was. So perfect we didn’t get to keep him. This baby boy moved mountains the last 12 days. He brought so many people together. In a world so dark, we got to see light at the hands of a child. He’s everything his mom and dad could’ve wanted him to be,” the post read.
The family has mourned Levi in many different ways including a touching obituary that remembered him for his “pure heart,” and an emotional video montage.
In a new Facebook post made on June 15, Kallie shared photos and wrote about laying her child to rest.
She thanked everyone for honoring him, supporting her family, and announced how they will keep Levi’s legacy alive.
“With our story catching flight the way it has comes some flack and negativity, but we can handle it because the good far outweighs the bad & God knows the truth. Amidst all of this something happened, something unplanned & completely organic and that is the birth of the Levi Wright Foundation.”
Right now, they have an auction going on the Facebook page Levi Wright – Benefit Auction & Updates, but once the auction is over, it will the the home of the Levi Wright Foundation. Stay tuned for updates on the foundation.