Medical student left brain dead after friends 'pushed him in lake to drown'

A medical student who couldn't swim was reportedly pushed into a lake by friends and left to drown as he struggled in the water for nearly twenty minutes, his devastated family has claimed.

Shocking footage shows the group of friends urinating in the water just moments after shoving Christopher Gilbert, 26, off the dock at Lake D'Arbonne in Farmerville, Louisiana on April 14.

Gilbert struggled for up to twenty minutes to try and get himself to safety as one woman could be seen slowly entering the water before abandoning the rescue mission.

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It was another ten minutes before a member of the public at a nearby restaurant intervened and pulled Gilbert back to safety.

The aspiring medical doctor was left brain dead and the rest of his organs were starting to fail by the time he arrived at the hospital, according to his mom Yolanda George, who said he spent 72 hours on a ventilator which was "dialysis for the lungs."

"I was devastated. I felt like my life had ended in that moment. My son is aspiring to be a medical doctor, my son is going to be a medical doctor. He got his masters last year in biological science. He's preparing for medical school so for this to have happened to him ... I was just devastated," George said. The mother rushed to the hospital after receiving a distressing call from one of the friends.

"She told me that Chris had fallen into the lake and he had been underwater for 20 minutes or so,' George shared with Fox8." 'And I was like, 20 minutes? Why was he underwater for 20 minutes?

"And she was just crying hysterically and he was being airlifted to Shreveport. And initially when my son got there the doctor called us in and told me that at this time he was "brain dead pretty much, and the rest of his organs were starting to fail".

Police reported that his so-called friends tried to dismiss the near-death as "horse-play" and he "just kind of fell face first into the water" before one confessed that she had pushed him off the pier.

"In the legal field, we characterize things the way we see fit,' stated family lawyer Claudia Payne. "Of course, they are saying horseplay. We are saying that it was a criminal intentional push into the lake.

"To add insult to injury, after pushing him, no one from the 'friend group' attempted to go in after him. Instead, two brave bystanders, who have no relationship to Chris, heard commotion and retrieved his body from the lake," Payne wrote in a report.

Fortunately, since the horrific incident, the student is showing cognitive responses but is still unable to speak. He relies on life support and his lungs are said to be functioning at 20% capacity.

The heartbroken family is calling for an arrest, with their attorney stating that the friends showed criminal intent by pushing him into the lake. "Why would you push my son in the lake knowing he couldn't swim? " George questioned.