William McCrary

My name is Melissa Cooper. I am the mother of William McCrary. On June 21st 2009 father’s day my son was in his father’s care for visitation. My son was put on the back of a panther 110 ATV with a nine yr. old little girl. Neither one of them had the proper safety equipment on. My son was thrown from the back of the 4-wheeler at 11:49 a.m. He was medflighted to Huntsville hospital where they x-rayed him & ran tests. They came in the room to ask me if my son was wearing a helmet. I told them had none of that information that my son was in the care of his father. William\'s father said he did not have a helmet on. They proceeded to tell me of my son’s injuries. William sustained 1 punctured lung, broken ribs, and a cut across the bottom of his chin that would have required cosmetic surgery had he survived this accident and severe head trauma.

They called me in the room around 10:30 to tell me that my son only had a 5% chance to live. William was in a coma, the pressure and swelling in his little head was too much. After his father had made the decision to put him on the 4-wheeler they then turned to me to make the decision to turn my baby off life support because he was brain dead.

My son passed away @ 11:26 p.m. William was only 3 yrs. old. It is our job as parents to always look at everything from every angle and always put our children’s safety first.  Please don’t ever put your child on an ATV.

BACK TO STORIES