California High School Sophomore Paralyzed During Wrestling Competition

Ryan Joseph suffered a freak accident during a wrestling competition and is now paralyzed from the neck down.

A California teenager is paralyzed from the neck down after he sustained a spinal cord injury during a high school wrestling match on Wednesday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Ryan Joseph, a 16-year-old sophomore on the JV wrestling team at College Park High School (Pleasant Hill, Calif.), was competing in a match when he was taken to the ground and found himself unable to get up.

"The guy took him down and put him in a hold, and then the ref shook him off and he shook his head like, 'I can't get up' so he just laid there and the ambulance had to come and take him," Adam Samhan, Ryan's childhood friend, told ABC7News.com.

Joseph sustained a C4 spinal cord injury and requires assistance breathing, according to the College Park High School website.

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Joseph was in his second year wrestling for the JV team. He was also a member of the school's lacrosse team.

Joseph is being treated in the ICU at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Ryan to assist the family with medical and rehabilitation expenses.