The initial prognosis for 3-year-old Levi Wright, saddle bronc riding champ Spencer Wright's son, was grim after he nearly drowned in the Utah River last week.
However, the boy's family remains hopeful and say that they aim to wean the boy off his breathing tube in the coming days. The boy's mother, Kallie Wright, wrote on Facebook yesterday that the "goal" this week is to "see if [Levi] will tolerate breathing on his own" if he is extubated.
The boy will undergo another 24-hour electroencephalogram test, the mother wrote, which would gauge the electrical activity in his brain.
Levi will also take another MRI to better understand the damage he suffered in the river. An earlier MRI this week left his family "shattered," Fox News Digital previously reported.
"The MRI wasn't good," Levi's mother wrote in an earlier post. "We're shattered but it is just images that suggest a certain quality of life. Our real teller of all will be what Levi does over the course of a few days."
RODEO STAR SPENCER WRIGHT'S 3-YEAR-OLD SON HOSPITALIZED AFTER FALLING INTO UTAH RIVER ON TOY TRACTOR
The boy was feared to be brain-dead after he fell off his toy tractor and into the river on Tuesday. He was found about a mile downstream from his Beaver County home and airlifted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he has been on a ventilator since.
Wright family friend Mindy Clark, who has been posting updates via social media and spoke to KUTV, said the boy's mother took her eyes off her son for just a moment when she ran into her home to grab something.
"[Kallie] saw his little tractor overturned and immediately dialed 911 and jumped into the water to find him," Clark told the outlet. "We don't know how long he had been in the water, but he had been carried quite a ways."
The family has gotten ample support from the community since the tragic accident, Clark has said on Facebook. A benefit auction featuring hundreds of items, including a horse sold for $18,000, was set up for the family by friends.
The toddler's father, 33-year-old Spencer Wright, is ranked No. 40 in the world in saddle bronc riding: His grandfather, Bill Wright, is in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. Spencer and his three brothers made history in 2014 when all four qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Wright ultimately won the championship.
The family was the subject of the book "The Last Cowboys" and has been featured on an episode of "60 Minutes."
