By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó Aidan Wright will spend his birthday in the hospital, fighting for his life. The 2-year-old nearly drowned last weekend in a pond at a Hilton Lake Road residence and remains in critical condition.
Family and friends gathered Saturday at a home to celebrate Aidan’s birthday, which is today, said a family friend.
The child wandered away from the group and was found floating in a nearby pond sometime about 3:54 p.m.
Friend Danny Lewis, of 4579 Hilton Lake Road, has dated Aidan’s grandmother, Sonia Sinclair, for a number of years.
“He’s kind of like a grandson to me,” Lewis said.
Aidan’s father, Russell Wright, of Mount Pleasant, grabbed the child from the water and put him in Lewis’ arms .
“Russell got him to the top of the bank and handed him to me,” he said.
Sinclair, a certified nurse, immediately administered CPR, and emergency personnel arrived a few minutes later, Lewis recalled.
“Every time she pumped his chest, water poured out of him,” Lewis said.
The child had a faint pulse and never uttered any words.
“He made no response. He was blue when we got him out of the water and retained some color when the EMS came,” he said.
Mount Mitchell Fire Chief Robert Earnhardt explains that when they arrived CPR was in the process of being administered.
“He had a weak pulse. We couldn’t detect it. The machine could,” he said.
Earnhardt said emergency officials gave the child intravenous fluids and he was loaded onto an ambulance.
Aidan remains in critical condition at the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast.
Doctors have placed the child in a medically induced coma and he is battling pneumonia, Lewis said.
Lewis notes that doctors performed tests to determine brain activity.
“All that checked out pretty good,” he said.
Cabarrus County EMS and Mount Mitchell Fire Department responded as well as officials with the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s in the Lord’s hands,” Lewis said.
Contact Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253 or spotts@salisburypost.com.