A student doctor who was left to almost drown after allegedly being pushed into a lake by his friends has been taken off life support.
Christopher Gilbert, 26, fought for nearly twenty minutes to try and pull himself to safety after he was allegedly shoved off the dock at Lake D’Arbonne in Farmerville in Lousiana on April 14. The student, who could not swim, spent nearly ten minutes underwater.
One of his friends could be seen entering the water to try and help Gilbert but abandoned the rescue. Eventually, a member of the public, Dawson Foust, intervened and pulled the aspiring doctor back to safety.
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Christopher was left "brain dead" (KSLA News 12)He was rushed to hospital where he was declared "brain dead", according to doctors. He was put on life support machines and spent 72 hours on a ventilator which was "dialysis for the lungs."
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Remarkably, Gilbert has since been taken off life support and is still recuperating physically and working on his memory loss, according to family lawyer Claudia Payne. But now the family is planning civil action against the Rhett's Tails and Shells restaurant where he was pushed off the lake.
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Christopher was pushed into the lake (Fox 8)Ms Payne claims they failed to properly restrict access to the lake despite serving booze. The family is also demanding the arrest of the woman who is accused of pushing Gilbert into the lake - and they believe cops are not arresting them because they are all white and Chris is black.
“Had Chris, a black male, pushed a white female into a lake, he would be arrested,” Ms Payne said. “I’ve defended alleged criminals with less evidence that they’ve made arrests on.”
The 26-year-old has made a remarkable recovery (Fox 8)Gilbert's mum Yolanda George said she was left "devastated" when she received a call from one of his friends claiming he had fallen into the lake. She recalled: "She told me that Chris had fallen into the lake and he had been underwater for 20 minutes or so.
"And I was like, 20 minutes? Why was he underwater for 20 minutes? And she was just crying hysterically and he was being airlifted to Shreveport. And initially when my son got there the doctor called us in and told me that at this time he was brain dead pretty much, and the rest of his organs were starting to fail"
Justice is being demanded for the medical student (Fox 8)"In the legal field, we characterise things the way we see fit,' said family lawyer Ms Payne. "Of course, they are saying horseplay. We are saying that it was a criminal intentional push into the lake.
“To add insult to injury, after pushing him, no one from the ‘friend group’ attempted to go in after him. Instead, two brave bystanders, who have no relationship to Chris, heard commotion and retrieved his body from the lake,” Payne said.
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