Crime & Safety
Bad News For Friends and Family of Orinda Teen Caught In Sand Tunnel Collapse
Ryan Buchanan's father Bret writes that his son's prognosis is not good. Doctors told the family Ryan will likely remain in a "perpetual vegetative state."
Bret Buchanan, father of the 17-year-old Orinda teen trapped when a sand tunnel he was building with others fell in on him, wrote Tuesday that doctors predicted his son would remain in a "perpetual vegetative state."
"...we learned from the neurolgist that Ryan is considered to be in a perpetual vegetative state; which for all intents and purposes means he will not regain any voluntary motion," Bret Buchanan wrote in a blog updating friends and relatives on the condition of his son, Ryan, who just completed his junior year at Miramonte High School in Orinda.
On June 25, Ryan was unearthed from a sand tunnel he and others were digging at Sunset State Beach during a church outing to Sunset State Beach near Watsonville. First responders said he was connecting two deep sand holes with a tunnel when the sand fell in on him, trapping him underground for more than 10 minutes as friends, lifeguards and passersby dug frantically to extricate him.
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