Dive from boat on Lake Minnetonka leaves young father with spinal injury

A young father and former Concordia University baseball standout suffered a severe spinal injury after diving from a pontoon boat on Lake Minnetonka. Now the community is rallying around his young family.

Family members say Kirk Ingram and some friends were on a pontoon boat for a bachelor party at Maxwell Bay on Saturday. As the boat pulled away from a sandbar, Ingram dove into waist-high water, hitting his head and pinching his spinal cord.

At first he was unconscious and not breathing, but deputies were able to revive him by performing CPR and he was airlifted to North Memorial Medical Center. The accident left Ingram with no feeling below his chest, but he was awake and talking to visitors until doctors sedated him and put him on a breathing machine Monday afternoon.

At first, doctors thought Ingram might get out of the hospital in a week or so, but now they are taking things day-by-day.

The outpouring of support in the days since the accident has been overwhelming. Ingram and his wife just had a daughter, Alexa, 2 weeks ago. A GoFundMe page to help his young family quickly passed its goal of $50,000, but you can donate toward the new goal of $100,000 at http://www.gofundme.com/c43uwhf7c.

Ingram is also a big Gophers football fan and tailgate organizer. T-shirts to help represent Kirk's recovery can be purchased at https://www.booster.com/teamkirk, with all proceeds going to the Ingram family.