An aspiring medical student was left brain dead and fighting for his life when his so-called friends pushed him into a Louisiana lake despite knowing that he could not swim. The friends then kept looking on as he was drowning and did nothing to save him.
A video shows the group peering into the water a few moments after they shoved Christopher Gilbert off the dock at Lake D’Arbonne in Farmerville on April 14.
A report by the New York Post said that one woman entered the water before abandoning the rescue mission. It took another 10 minutes before a patron at a nearby restaurant jumped in to bring Gilbert back to land – saving his life.
Gilbert’s mother Yolanda George told local news broadcaster KSLA that the 26-year-old was brain dead and the rest of his organs were starting to fail when they brought him to the hospital.
“I was devastated. I felt like my life had ended at that moment. My son is aspiring to be a medical doctor, my son is going to be a medical doctor. He got his masters last year in biological science. He’s preparing for medical school so for this to have happened to him … I was just devastated," Yolanda was quoted as saying by KSLA.
The aspiring medical student spent 72 hours on a ventilator and an ECMO machine
Cops that his so-called friends tried to pass off the near-death incident as “horse-play".
They even lied to his mother and said Gilbert had ‘fallen into the lake’.
Later, a white woman around the same age as Gilbert admitted to pushing him into the lake.
His friends admitted that they did not know that he could swim but Gilbert’s family dismissed the claim.
“To add insult to injury, after pushing him, no one from the ‘friend group’ attempted to go in after him. Instead, two brave bystanders, who have no relationship to Chris, heard commotion and retrieved his body from the lake," personal injury attorney Claudia Payne, representing George, was quoted as saying by the Lincoln Parish Journal.
Gilbert has recovered slightly following the attack. The New York Post said he is responding cognitively but is unable to speak and is still relying on life support, citing his mother, who also said that her son’s lungs are said to be at 20% capacity.
They are also demanding that an arrest be made following this tragic incident. “Why would you push my son in the lake knowing he couldn’t swim?" asked George.
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