A teenager was rushed to the hospital after sustaining severe injuries while swimming at a popular beach.
On Monday, June 23, Aiden Sloan was with his cousins at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire when he hit a sandbar and had to be taken to a hospital in Boston. There, the 19-year-old learned he had a concussion, bruised spine and a broken neck, CBS News and NBC 10 Boston reported.
Hampton Beach Fire Chief Michael McMahon later told Fox News Digital that Sloan likely didn't realize how shallow the water was while he was on the beach.
The teen's mom, Melina Burton, shared a similar belief with NBC 10 Boston, telling the outlet, "They were diving into the waves like kids do, and there was a sandbar that nobody could have known was there, so he dove through a wave, and he hit the sandbar head-on."
Sloan's cousins said they dragged him from the water after the look on his face indicated something was wrong.
"He was just, like, not moving at all," family member Gabriel Ruiz told NBC 10 Boston. "It was like we were carrying a dead body."
Sloan's mother said she was "grateful" for the cousins’ efforts to rescue her son.
The teenager, who is a cook at a Nashua restaurant, is expected to remain in the hospital for several weeks. He will then go to a rehab facility.
"[The doctors] ask him multiple times a day if he can move his hands and his fingers, if he could move his feet and toes, and if he can lift his knees," Burton told Fox News Digital. "Or if he can feel anything in his midsection, and he gets very defeated and hopeless when he can't."
"And he doesn't understand why they keep asking him to try these things, so he's very tearful," she added.
A GoFundMe page has since been set up to raise money for Sloan's medical bills. It has already raised over $38,000.
Burton told CBS News she was surprised by the generosity of donors. "We set the goal for $8,000. Never in a million years did I think we'd be at $30,000, which is absolutely amazing and so overwhelming," she told the outlet. "I tell Aiden, and he's like, 'Shoot, I didn’t know that many people liked me!' "
According to Fox News Digital, Sloan's employer is also donating a portion of sales towards his expenses.
"A member of our Greenleaf family, Aiden Sloan, unfortunately suffered a serious neck injury while having a fun day at Hampton Beach earlier this week," Greenleaf Milford wrote on Facebook. "Aiden joined our Greenleaf family at a young age, and we watched him grow as a person and a cook over the years and he and his family have our full love and support during these difficult times."
The Hampton Police Department (HPD) and the Hampton Fire Department (HFD) did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Sunday, June 29.