Teen who nearly drowned in Prospect Park Lake dies

A 13-year-old boy who nearly drowned in Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn last month has died after clinging to life for weeks, his family says.

Rikeverns โ€œRickyโ€ Joassaint died Wednesday with his mother at his bedside after she flew to the city to be with him, according to relatives.

โ€œHe fought and held on until we were able to bring his mom from the Caribbean to come to his bedside,โ€ family wrote on a GoFundMe page for the youth. โ€œHis mom was able to spend 1.5 days with him at the bedside, before Ricky became an Angel of God.โ€

He was one of five boys splashing in the water just off East Drive near the Peristyle in the southern end of the park around 7:30 p.m. on June 13 when he disappeared under the surf, according to witnesses.

It was the teenโ€™s first time in the lake, relatives said.

โ€œHe went for a dive and things went wrong,โ€ his grandfather Lifaite Joassaint previously told the Daily News. โ€œHe doesnโ€™t know anything about swimming.โ€

Prospect Park location where a 13-year-old went into the lake and drowned before rescue workers pulled him out on June 13, 2023.

The teen, a sixth grader at Walt Whitman Middle School, was taken to New York Presbyterian-Methodist Hospital and later transferred to a pediatric ICU unit at Cornell University Medical College in Manhattan, cops said.

โ€œWe are heartbroken,โ€ family said this week. โ€œWe ask for your prayers to help us during this painful and tragic part of life.โ€

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