Yolanda George, mother of Christopher Gilbert, calls on police to make arrest after incident in Louisiana in April
The family of a 26-year-old Louisiana man who has brain damage after a friend allegedly pushed him into a lake despite him being unable to swim is calling on authorities to deliver them justice.
Christopher Gilbert’s family’s pleas came after he nearly drowned on 14 April while at a lakefront restaurant by Lake D’Arbonne in the northern Louisiana town of Farmerville.
Speaking to the local news station KSLA, Gilbert’s mother Yolanda George said: “A friend of his called. She was hysterical, crying on the phone. She told me that Chris had [fallen] into the lake, and he had been underwater for 20 minutes or so.”
George said her son – an aspiring medical doctor – was rescued and taken to a nearby hospital. She added: “The doctor called us in and told me that at that time, he was brain-dead, pretty much, and the rest of his organs were starting to fail, and that we had 72 hours on” life support, though Gilbert later regained consciousness and the ability to eat on his own.
I agree that everyone should know how to swim. Unfortunately, it’s pretty common for those in poverty to never learn because they have fewer opportunities.
Odds or this person wasn’t from a background of poverty, considering that he was studying to be a doctor, but it is a common problem in the US.
Do you not have swimming lessons in school? I hated them, the teacher, the chlorine. I don’t like swimming, but if I needed to, I can. I mean, water makes up how much of the earth’s surface, seems strange to ignore.
Most public schools do not have pools.
It’s funny cos I think of (areas like ca) that have pools galore in the backyards so it would lead to you to expect schools to have them. Scratch that, it’s not funny.
Florida has tons of pools too, and I actually got swimming lessons in elementary school, we had mini field trips for a week walking to a community pool and teaching everyone to, at a minimum, float on their back and tread water.
This should be mandatory before second grade. Every major city has public pools. How are we not requiring this to be part of every public school’s curriculum? It’s 2024. You know, those finger painting projects were fun, but they aren’t going to save as many lives as swim lessons.