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Tripp Halstead, boy seriously injured by tree limb, dies five years after accident

Posted at 11:47 PM, Mar 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-15 23:48:22-04

ATLANTA – A Georgia boy who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2012 when he was just 2 years old, died on Thursday, according to multiple reports.

Tripp Halstead’s fight for life in the months after the freak accident, which happened at his day care, inspired a large social media following as people checked in on his progress and offered his family support, according to WSB-TV.

Tripp’s mother posted on Facebook that Tripp was having difficulty breathing Thursday morning when she got him up, and said he looked like he was getting worse as she rushed to see a pediatrician. Worrying about his oxygen supply, she took a detour to an emergency room in Athens instead of fighting traffic to get to his doctor in Atlanta.

When they got there, she wrote on Facebook, “His oxygen levels were low and his CO2 levels were high so they have him on high flow oxygen and they did blood work, x rays and got an IV started.”

“They said his left lung was cloudy and it could be pneumonia or a mucus plug, but since they don’t have a (pediatrician) ICU, they are sending us to CHOA (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta)” she wrote.

On Thursday evening, Tripp’s father confirmed to WSB-TV that the 7-year-old had died.

Tripp, whose skull was partially crushed by the tree branch that fell on him October 29, 2012, underwent multiple surgeries and eventually learned how to talk again in 2015.

Over 1 million people followed the Facebook page Tripp Halstead Updates for regular news from his family about Tripp’s progress.