Local

5-year-old remains in coma after tree falls on him, sister

WALTON COUNTY, Ga. — A 5-year-old Walton County boy remains in a coma after a tree fell on him and his sister last week.

Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach spoke to a family friend of Tristen Wilson and a neighbor about the freak accident.

The rotted tree covered in kudzu vines still lays in the yard on Wagon Trail where it fell around 8 p.m. Friday.

The incident left Tristen with severe injuries and his 3-year-old sister, Anslee, with a broken leg.

"(It was) just a pretty day. They were out there playing," neighbor Kathy Pugh said, pointing to the yard across the street.

Pugh said her grandchildren were also outside when the tree came crashing down.

"The tree came straight down on him," Pugh said.

The boy and girl were in a battery-operated Jeep, with the brother sitting on the driver's side and his little sister on the other side when the tree collapsed.

The owner of the house said he didn't know the little boy was even in the car -- because all evening, it was just the little girl riding around -- till the man actually picked the limb up and threw it off of the little boy.

Pugh thought Tristen was dead.

"We thought he was just gone, right then, because he wasn't moving, like he was paralyzed," Pugh said.

The children were airlifted to Children's Health Care of Atlanta at Egelston.

A family friend told Gehlbach that Tristen is still in a coma in intensive care. The neighbor heard little Anslee speak right after the accident.

"She said, 'That big tree killed my brother,'" Pugh said.

Everyone is now praying Tristen will survive.