10-Year-Old Dies After Being Swept Into Storm Drain

A 10-year-old boy who was sucked into a storm drain last week is being kept on life support so that he can be an organ donor, according to his father.

The fourth grader, Asher Sullivan from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was hanging out with friends when a huge storm struck the state, one that led to golfball-sized hailstones.

When the incident happened, he was helping his family and neighbors clean up the community in Christiana, nearly 50 miles southeast of Nashville.

According to James Evans, the chief communications officer for Rutherford County Schools, where the boy’s father worked as a director, they were trying to remove some standing water on the street when the water suddenly started to move, sucking Asher into the storm drain.

He was subsequently swept underground, where he remained for 10 to 15 minutes.

While the boy eventually managed to make his way out of the drain, he sustained serious injuries to his brain. Medical officials immediately administered CPR and rushed him to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center for Treatment, where it was confirmed that his brain was ‘[damaged] in just about all areas’.

Following the accident, his father continuously provided updates on Facebook about Asher’s condition. On Tuesday evening, he wrote about the bleak nature of the situation, saying that even if he was to recover, he ‘would not be able to do the things that he was able to do before’.

He also asked individuals to pray that his son’s brain herniation and swelling will resolve, and that he will breathe again on his own.

A day prior to the post, he and his wife had received a call in the middle of the night saying that their son had stopped breathing on his own and that his eyes were unresponsive. By the following day, however, his doctors noticed some minor movement in one of his pupils.

Later on Sunday, he wrote that Asher was officially ‘deceased’ due to a lack of brain function. However, he noted that his heart is still beating as they plan on donating his organs. In the post, he said Tennessee Donor Services was working on a list of donors so that his son will be able to ‘promote life in others’.

Evans, who has known them for years, said the family has always been loved by the community.

In 2020, the Sullivan family’s middle-school-aged son Declan, was diagnosed with cancer. During that period, the entire community supported and rallied around them. According to his father, treatment was ultimately successful and he is now in remission.

Evans described Asher as a ‘fun-loving’ 10-year-old who enjoys traveling with his family and doing outdoor activities such as hiking.

Following the accident, over 500 people gathered in the neighborhood for a vigil. The school district, for which his father works for, also remained closed for two days.