A North Carolina man has died after a powerful ocean wave struck his head while he was on the beach with his family.
Lee Dingle, a father of six, was playing with three of his children when a powerful wave hit him. The force of the wave pounded Lee’s head into the ground and broke his neck, WTHR reported.
“Some heroes – including our kids – tried to save him, but it wouldn’t have mattered what they did,” Lee’s wife Shannon wrote on Twitter. “His body couldn’t recover from the initial injury.”
His throat also swelled up from the impact, depriving Lee’s brain of the oxygen needed to recover.
Oak Island Water Rescue said in a Facebook post that it, other agencies, and bystanders tried to provide life-saving support to Lee within minutes of the accident. But despite their efforts, Lee died one day later.
Lee served as president of Atlas Engineering in Raleigh, North Carolina, a firm which specializes in fixing buildings with structural damage, according to the facility’s website.
Atlas Engineering senior partner Tom Caldwell said he had recently received the promotion to president just two weeks before he died, WSLS reported.
Lee also left behind his wife and six children, including four adopted children and one disabled child.
Friends of the family created a GoFundMe page to offset the costs of funeral expenses for the family and other bills. As of Monday afternoon, the page has raised more than $167,000 in two days.