RICHMOND, Va (WTVR) - A Richmond father said his son nearly drowned when other children held his son down in the pool.
Thierno Sy remains in a coma, with a feeding tube and ventilator. It’s been three weeks since he was pulled from the bottom of an apartment complex pool.
His father said Thierno was pushed into the pool, held under the water by another person, and then left as he struggled to live.
"Right now he's still in a coma,” Abdarahmame Sy, father of the son, said. “And they don't know when he's going to wake up."
"It's not easy. He's the only son I have and he's my best friend," he added.
Sy raises his three daughters alone, and visits the hospital every day, while still trying to work at his store on Jeff Davis Highway.
The tragedy has left its mark on the sisters, who visit their brother at the hospital. Sy said that the girls can’t sleep sometimes and are sometimes scared.
Richmond Police would not comment on camera, and said only that the case is under investigation.
Theirno's older sister, Aissata Sy, who used to love riding bikes with her brother, is missing hm.
"He's in the hospital, I feel so bad and sad sometimes, sometimes when I go outside, play with the bike without him, and I feel sad and cry,” she said.
A special account has been set up through Wells Fargo to try to help pay expenses for the family.
Theirno, who has been in Pediatric Intensive Care at Chippenham Hospital, may have to be moved to a nursing home type facility in Manassas, if a bed and care he needs can't be found closer to Richmond.
