SEQUIM — Jesse T. Morgan, for whom a request for prayer drew thousands of responses from all over the world, has died.
The 21-year-old man from Sequim, injured in a freak accident Easter Sunday, April 24, was in a coma in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for 12 days before he was taken off life support at 4 p.m. Friday, said his uncle, Jason Parkinson.
Morgan died eight hours later at 12:10 a.m. Saturday, Parkinson said.
“It was a long eight hours,” Parkinson said. “I was holding his hand the whole time.”
Morgan was upstairs in his grandmother’s home in Sequim when he reached for his cat, Gwynn, lost his balance, tumbled over a railing and fell 15 feet head-first.
When he hit his head, Morgan suffered a massive stroke which left him brain dead.
Family members agreed to remove life support machines because doctors told them “things were looking much more grimmer than they had ever seen. . . . to keep him alive was needless suffering,” Parkinson said.
The family had requested prayer for Morgan’s recovery.
The response was “overwhelming,” in emails and posts to the family’s website, Parkinson said, saying that emails alone numbered in the thousands.
“There were so many people in the community and people all over the country, people in other countries praying for Jesse,” he said.
“That is some blessing that has come from this — a restoration of humanity, the outpouring of love,” Parkinson said.
After their father died two years ago, Morgan and his brother, Tucker, moved in with their grandmother, Sharon Leonard, and Parkinson, andMorgan had only recently moved out, Parkinson said.
Leonard is Parkinson’s mother and caregiver. Parkinson was paralyzed from the neck down 20 years ago and is confined to a wheelchair.
Parkinson said he is very grateful to those who prayed for Jesse.
“Even though the prayers did not save his life, I think it helped in a different way,” Parkinson said.
“I think it helped open doors to heaven for him.”
Parkinson said he would update the website at www.savingjesse.com this afternoon.
A private family memorial service is to be conducted later.
