A teen was severely injured in a freak accident at a popular New Hampshire beach. Now, he's lucky to be alive. The tragic incident happened on Jun 23 when 19-year-old Aiden Sloan went swimming with his cousins at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire.
While swimming, the teen tragically struck a sandbar and bruised his spine, broke his neck, and suffered a concussion. Hampton Beach Fire Chief Michael McMahon told Fox News Digital that the teen didn't realize how shallow the water was.
The teen's mother, Melina Burton, spoke out about the incident, "They were diving into the waves like kids do, and there was a sandbar that nobody could have known was there, so he dove through a wave, and he hit the sandbar head-on."
Fortunately for Sloan, his cousins sprang into action and managed to rescue him from the water after they found him in distress. "He was just, like, not moving at all," family member Gabriel Ruiz told NBC 10 Boston. "It was like we were carrying a dead body."
Teen Hospitalized After Incident
The teen has a long road to recovery ahead of him.
"[The doctors] ask him multiple times a day if he can move his hands and his fingers, if he could move his feet and toes, and if he can lift his knees," Burton told Fox News Digital. "Or if he can feel anything in his midsection, and he gets very defeated and hopeless when he can't."
"And he doesn't understand why they keep asking him to try these things, so he's very tearful," she added.
Meanwhile, the family has set up a GoFundMe for the teen. They've raised several thousand.
Burton told CBS News, "We set the goal for $8,000. Never in a million years did I think we'd be at $30,000, which is absolutely amazing and so overwhelming," she told the outlet. "I tell Aiden, and he's like, 'Shoot, I didn't know that many people liked me!' "
"A member of our Greenleaf family, Aiden Sloan, unfortunately suffered a serious neck injury while having a fun day at Hampton Beach earlier this week," Greenleaf Milford wrote on Facebook. "Aiden joined our Greenleaf family at a young age, and we watched him grow as a person and a cook over the years and he and his family have our full love and support during these difficult times."
