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A 6-year-old boy in Texas that was allegedly hit by his neighbor with a baseball bat in September died on Tuesday after spending two months fighting for his life on a hospital ventilator, according to authorities and an update on GoFundMe from his father.
“Early this morning I was checking him and noticed a pale face and eyes with no motion. Then his heart stopped,” the child’s father wrote on the GoFundMe page on Tuesday. “They tried to resuscitate him, but it was not successful.”
Jeremy Diaz was sleeping in his bed on Sept. 11 when 39-year-old Daniel Logan entered the Georgetown home and assaulted him and another individual in the house, said the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office. Police arrived at the home just after 5 a.m. in response to the disturbance, and transported Diaz and the other injured person to the hospital for treatment.
Diaz’s family told NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin that the child suffered multiple fractures to his skull from the attack.
Logan was charged with two felonies for causing serious bodily injury to a child, and aggravated assault of a family member with a weapon, said criminal case records. The court has ordered a mental health assessment and are holding him in custody on felony bonds totaling $650,000.
Jeremy’s father, Art Diaz, said his son was doing much better on Saturday. The family intended to extubate him because he didn’t need a ventilator anymore. His condition worsened rapidly on Monday night when he had a neural storm — a stress reaction caused by brain injuries.
“It was the worst storm we had seen and it came out of no where. It was almost 6 hours of hell on earth — I can only imagine the torture he went through,” said Art Diaz.
The sheriff’s office said they are awaiting autopsy results from the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office and if the findings warrant it, will “present the case to a grand jury for the charges to be enhanced to Capital Murder.”
Marc Chavez, the attorney representing Logan, said his prayers go out to the Diaz family, and that he hopes they find peace in this tragic time.
“While the allegations sound troubling, we ask everyone to reserve judgment until all the facts come to light especially while we investigate issues related to serious mental illness,” said Chavez.
Jeremy’s father shared a story about how his son led him by the hand to read a story book on the night before the neural storm.
“When we were done reading, the last thing he said was, “papa, watch me cover myself,”” Art Diaz said. “Today I covered his face for the last time.”
During his time in the hospital, the child needed a spinal tap, suffered infections and throat swelling, and needed to wear temperature-regulating suit. Jeremy’s father said he wanted to be Iron Man for Halloween, and was “fighting for his life just like a superhero.”
“I was there when he took his first breath and saw him take his last wrote Art Diaz. “No parent should see their children buried before them.”
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