A San Antonio family is mourning 2-year-old Malachi Israel LeBlanc after he was found unresponsive in a Far North Side community pool and later died. His parents chose to donate his organs so other children could live.

On Aug. 5, 2026, around 7:30 p.m., Malachi was pulled from a residential community pool in the Indian Springs subdivision, in the 25800 block of Turquoise Sky near Bulverde Road. Deputies and EMS performed lifesaving measures. He was taken to North Central Baptist Hospital in critical condition. He was declared brain dead and died Aug. 9. The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled the death accidental, caused by complications of near-drowning.

Malachi’s parents, Grace and Myron LeBlanc, said he had been on a playdate with a trusted adult. “I just started saying, Jesus … Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” Grace told KSAT as she rushed to the hospital. They have three older children. They said they still trust the person who was watching him and call the drowning an accident. “He was in great care,” Grace said. “Someone that I trust with my life and with my children’s lives even still.”

When doctors said Malachi would not recover, the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance asked about donation. Grace first refused: “Not my baby, nobody’s going to cut my baby open.” She later thought of other parents waiting for a transplant. “I felt that pain,” she said. “To know that other parents are going through that, and there’s a chance that they’ll get to hear their baby cry again … absolutely, why would I not want to give them that?” Myron told her that if they would not get the miracle they prayed for, Malachi could be that miracle for other children.

Doctors recovered his heart, liver and kidneys for three children in Texas on the transplant list. Pediatric donors of that age are rare. Grace remembered him as “perfect” and “the joy of our life.” He loved to swim, sing, dance and pray. Myron wrote that the children who received his organs “will get a chance at life.”

Later in August, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office submitted a criminal case to the district attorney for review. Officials have not publicly named a suspect or specified a charge. No charges had been filed as of early September. Grace said she opposes prosecution and wants her son remembered as a donor who became “a miracle for other children.”

Sources

• KSAT, KENS 5, News 4 San Antonio
• San Antonio Express-News
• People
• Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and Medical Examiner statements
• Family interviews and GoFundMe updates