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16-Year-Old Ohio Boy Dies After Freak Basketball Accident

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – After fighting for his life for 18 days, friends and family say an Ohio teenager injured in a freak basketball accident, has died.

Noah Lear, 16, was playing basketball with friends on Feb. 27 in Bucyrus, Ohio.

The teen reportedly went in for a dunk and the basketball post, rim, and backboard fell on top of him, according to a Facebook page dedicated to him.

Friends called 911 and helped tend to him until paramedics could arrive.

Noah's mother, Melissa Griffin, tells the Galion Inquirer that she got a call from him after the accident.

"He just said that he had an accident and his mouth was bleeding really bad and he knocked a few teeth out. He said the police were with him and he was being taken to the hospital," Griffin said.

He was taken to Bucyrus Community Hospital, but went into cardiac arrest twice.

Lear was then airlifted to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

Friends and family posted on his Facebook page that he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

"We were told that due to the lack of oxygen to his brain, the part that controls the body's vitals such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature, is no longer working," Griffin told the newspaper.

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Noah was moved to a hospice facility, where he remained in a coma. He succumbed to his injuries Wednesday, according to Battle of the Lear, a Facebook page dedicated to Noah.

After fighting valiantly for 18 days, Noah has taken his last breath. He is no longer in pain. He has left his mark on...

Posted by Battle of the Lear on Wednesday, March 16, 2016

"After fighting valiantly for 18 days, Noah has taken his last breath. He is no longer in pain," the page posted Wednesday. "Noah spent his life trying to make others happy and standing up for what he felt to be right. He put 110% into being the best he could be."

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