Kentucky 18-year-old dies after helping with flood cleanup: ‘He loved everyone and loved deeply’

A Kentucky teenager has died after helping assist his community with cleanup efforts following devastating floods that have left families empty-handed and broken-hearted in recent weeks.

Aaron “Mick” Crawford, 18, died on Aug. 5 after becoming sick days after he volunteered to help with cleanup efforts in southeastern Kentucky, where flooding killed at least 37 victims and displaced hundreds of others, according to local reports.

“Mick had just turned 18 on July 23,” his sister, Rachel Crawford, told Fox News Digital. “He was a junior at Knott County Central and was a proud member of the football and wrestling teams. He was the best little brother, son, friend, and just all-around person ever. He loved everyone and loved deeply. He loved Jesus and his church. He had a great sense of humor and always tried to make people laugh. He never wanted anyone to be left out and made a point to tell everyone that he loved them and that Jesus loved them.”

Crawford said her brother had been working with her dad to help a family friend “clean out their destroyed home after the recent catastrophic flooding” in their area.

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“He started to not feel well, so he came home, and that is where he lost consciousness because he wasn’t breathing and was rushed to ARH hospital in Hazard,” she said. “They airlifted him to [the University of Kentucky Hospital], and he was on the ventilator for [four] days before he was pronounced brain dead by the doctors there.”

Doctors told Crawford’s family that the 18-year-old died of cardiac arrest, but they did not know what initially caused his heart to stop. 

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His family donated the teenager’s organs because he “would give someone the shirt off his back,” and they know he “would want it that way.”

“He had the best heart that was pure gold, and I hope whoever gets his heart is worthy of it,” Crawford added.

Crawford was “an active football player with the Knott County Central Patriots, where he was also on the wrestling team,” an obituary for the teenager reads.

 

His mother, Rhonda Crawford, said in a Facebook post that Mick had been helping flood victims for about three days before his collapse.

“We are looking into Organ Donation [sic] because we know that Mick had an amazing heart and would give anyone anything they asked from him. It’s what he would want,” she wrote. “If Mick could give us his final wish it would be that everyone come to know Jesus because that’s the most important thing in this world to him. We love you all.”