The 10-year-old boy who was swept into a storm drain near his home after a tornado died tragically Saturday, according to a Facebook post from his father.
Dr. Jimmy Sullivan, superintendent of schools in Rutherford County – just outside Nashville – wrote in an article that his youngest son, Asher Sullivan, died around 1:20 p.m. Saturday at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital .
The 10-year-old will become an organ donor and therefore remains on life support for the moment, according to local reports.
In his devastating social media post, Dr. Sullivan wrote: “It’s 100% an Asher thing to continue to be selfless. He will take a walk of honor at the hospital in the coming days and will be celebrated as he is, a hero!’
On May 8, Asher was swept into a storm drain while her neighbors helped clean up debris following a storm that ravaged the area.
Dr. Jimmy Sullivan, superintendent of schools in Rutherford County – just outside Nashville – wrote in an article that his youngest son, Asher Sullivan (pictured), died around 1:20 p.m. Saturday at the hospital for children of Vanderbilt.
“We’re heartbroken, we’re mad, and we’re feeling every other emotion at once,” Sullivan wrote. “Please keep our family in your prayers as we navigate a world without the purest among us.”
He eventually emerged from a drainage ditch with another boy, but was seriously injured and placed on life support. An MRI carried out last Thursday concluded that the initial brain damage he suffered had further progressed.
On Friday, as Asher’s father and mother met with neurologists, his vital signs broke, his body lost the ability to control his temperature and his eye reaction stopped.
His father wrote: “Our sweet boy did what Asher always did, he put others first. Kaycee and I no longer had to make an impossible decision.
“Instead, he did it for us while we were out of the room.”
Doctors performed a test to determine that Asher was technically dead.
“No parent should have to watch this, but we knew deep in our hearts that we had to. The results showed us what we already knew, that our sweet Asher was already gone,” Sullivan wrote.
“We are heartbroken, mad and every other emotion at once.”
The family will commemorate the young boy’s life in a private ceremony and have asked to be kept private while they grieve.
“Please keep our family in your prayers as we navigate a world without the purest among us,” added Sullivan, who also said of her son that he had lived a life busy, full of love and adventure.
“He visited all 50 states (which he was so proud of), visited four countries, played every sport imaginable, was the kindest, gentlest soul I ever met, loved EVERYTHING WORLD and has always lived his life on GO.
“Our nicknames for each other were ‘squirrel’ and ‘daddy squirrel’ because we always had to go, go, go and couldn’t focus on just one thing.”
The horror first unfolded as the 10-year-old was playing with other neighborhood children following a tornado and severe storm that ravaged Tennessee, killing three people.
The tragedy for the Sullivan family comes just a year after Asher’s older brother Declan battled leukemia for four years before beating the disease in 2022.
Before his death, his father said Asher’s “lungs are (were) severely damaged and he didn’t show much brain activity aside from muscle twitches.”
The horror first unfolded as the 10-year-old was playing with other neighborhood children following a tornado and severe storm that ravaged Tennessee, killing three people.
As neighbors banded together to repair the damage, Asher’s father said that “somehow, (he) got caught in the storm drains and was swept under the streets neighborhood “.
Asher “eventually” emerged in a drainage ditch, he said, alongside another boy who also lives on his street, eighth-grader Madden Moltz, who is expected to recover from his injuries.
The tragedy for the Sullivan family comes just a year after Asher’s older brother Declan battled leukemia for four years before beating the disease in 2022.
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