A 13-year-old boy was paralyzed after diving into a North Texas community center’s swimming pool while trying to escape a wasp, CBS News reported Friday.
Doctors said Seymon Williams Jr. may be paralyzed for life after shattering his spinal cord due to the incident, the outlet reported. Williams Jr.’s mother, Anya Camper, said her son is not sure how he dove in, and that all he could remember was waking up face down in the pool, unable to move.
Summer begins tragically for North Texas teen trying to escape a wasp https://t.co/xevk0HXN7z
— CBS News Texas (@CBSNewsTexas) June 28, 2024
“It was a normal day, you know. He came running downstairs telling me he was wanting to go swim with his friends,” Camper told the outlet. “Basically, him and his friends were just playing running away from a wasp and he just takes off and just dives in the pool.” (RELATED: ‘Long Road Ahead’: Woman Recounts Singer’s Stage Dive That Allegedly Caused ‘Catastrophic Spinal Cord Injury’)
“He couldn’t move. He was literally drinking water. So it’s hard to hear,” she told CBS News. “He literally told me, ‘Mom, I thought I was going to drown because I couldn’t move.'”
Louis Camper, Williams Jr.’s grandfather, told the outlet that the family met in the emergency room, and believes they beat the ambulance to the hospital. He recalled that it was “chaotic” when they brought his grandchild in, the outlet reported.
The grandfather has organized a GoFundMe page to raise money for Williams Jr.’s recovery. It has already raised over $55,000 out of the $100,000 requested.
“He [Williams] is continuing to make progress, albeit slowly. He recently passed his swallow study (Thank God) so that now he can began eating regular food and drinking normally,” the page reads.
The elder Camper told CBS News, “it not over … until God say so,” while Anya Camper said, “We’re praying and believing that God will do a miracle.”
