A 16-year-old in Ohio has died after being injured in a freak accident during a basketball game with friends at a local church.
Noah Lear, a junior at Bucyrus High School, was playing basketball with friends on Feb. 27 at Calvary Baptist Church when the post snapped in half, causing the backboard and hoop to come crashing down onto his face, NBC affiliate WCMH reported.
Before going to a local hospital, Lear was conscious and called his mother, the station reported.
"He just said that he had an accident and his mouth was bleeding really bad and he knocked a few teeth out. He said the police were with him and he was being taken to the hospital," his mother, Melissa Griffin, told The Galion Inquirer. "When he went to dunk the ball, the whole thing-post, backboard and rim, came down on him."
When he arrived at Bucyrus Community Hospital, Lear was still talking and apologized to his mother for the accident, the paper reported. He then went into cardiac arrest and oxygen was cut off to his brain.
The boy was airlifted to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus and placed in a medically induced coma, according to WCMH.
Last Thursday, the family received the heartbreaking phone call they hoped wouldn’t come. [[372270132, C]]
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"We were told that due to the lack of oxygen to his brain, the part that controls the body’s vitals such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature, is no longer working," Griffin the Galion Inquirer.
On a Facebook page created for Lear, his family announced he had passed Wednesday morning surrounded by loved ones and mementoes from friends.
"After fighting valiantly for 18 days, Noah has taken his last breath. He is no longer in pain," the post read.
"He has left his mark on so many people in this world in his short life. Since his accident he has brought his friends, his family, his community, and many others throughout our world together. His accident has touched so many," the family wrote. "It has reminded us all that anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Noah spent his life trying to make others happy and standing up for what he felt to be right. He put 110% into being the best he could be."
According to his family, Lear will help save the lives of others as an organ donor. A GoFundMe has been started for the family.
