(WHDH) — One teenage girl died and another was seriously injured in separate sledding accidents on the same hill just days apart, according to family members.
Eirelyn Zuercher, 14, was sledding down a hill at Hinckley Reservation in Medina County, Ohio, on Feb. 20 when she suffered a “detrimental brain injury,” her mother, Katie Dougherty Zuercher, said in a Facebook post.
“Eirelyn is currently on life support to maintain life long enough to find organ donor recipients. I am told this could take up to three days,” Katie wrote in the post. “Waiting for the inevitable end is emotional and exhausting, but my hope is that a few terrible days for my family will mean a brighter future for other families who will benefit from her healthy organs.”
Eirelyn was taken off life support last week. Her organs will be donated to five people.
“Her spirit lives on through the gift of organ donation,” Katie added in a follow-up post.
The day prior to Eirelyn’s accident, 17-year-old Natalie Wilson suffered a broken back and ribs, as well as a damaged spine, her family wrote in a GoFundMe post.
Wilson has since undergone surgery and is in “good spirits” but she has “little to no feeling from the chest down.” Doctors noted that she was able to move her toes.
Family members say the hill that the girls were sledding on is known to get very icy, causing sledders to go dangerously fast.
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