Fort Myers family hopes for miracle after motorcycle crash

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Given his last name, it might seem obvious why 22-year-old Dylan Meracle is still putting up a fight after a motorcycle crash on Sunday.

“All I know is he was coming over that bridge — the Midpoint Bridge — he was pegged out, I mean he was going as fast as he could I guess,” said David Meracle, Dylan’s older brother. “What I believe happened was he went to lean into the turn and he came out too wide and he barely clipped the bridge.”

Dylan was taken to the hospital on the brink of death.

“He wasn’t breathing, he wasn’t responsive, he barely had a pulse they said,” David said.

Doctors and paramedics were able to save him. He is now on life support in critical condition at Lee Memorial Hospital.

“He’s got collapsed lungs, his left arm is gone, he broke both his femurs, he tore an artery in his right leg,” David said. “Right now he’s on the most extensive ventilator that they have.”

Dylan’s brother said he doesn’t understand why he would be going so fast and that it’s very unlike the soon-to-be-father. Dylan’s fiancee is pregnant with their first child, who is due Aug. 1.

Dylan and David grew up around motors, which brought dozens of his friends and family Friday to the Mission BBQ restaurant on South Cleveland Avenue in Fort Myers to rev their engines for Dylan.

“Growing up our whole life, anything with a motor we were tinkering with it; trying to make it faster, run better, even just to get it running,” David said.

The Meracles are now clinging on to hope that a miracle is exactly what they’ll get.

“Right now he’s not doing that well but he is fighting and I know that he is trying to do the best he can.”

A bank account for donations has been set up at Wells Fargo called “Dylan Meracle Fund.”