Medical student, 26, is left horrifically-injured after being pushed into lake ... trends now

The family of a promising young medical student are demanding to know why no-one has been arrested for pushing him into a lake and leaving him to almost drown.

Video filmed at the scene showed the group of friends casually peering into the water as Christopher Gilbert, 26, who could not swim, fought for up to 20 minutes to save himself at the lake in Farmerville, Louisiana.

His heart and breathing had stopped by the time patrons from a nearby restaurant saw what was going on, hauled him to the surface and began CPR.

The group of friends told police he 'just kind of fell face first into the water' before one admitted that she had shoved him off the pier.

'In the legal field, we characterize things the way we see fit,' said family lawyer Claudia Payne. 'Of course, they are saying horseplay. We are saying that it was a criminal intentional push into the lake.'

Gilbert's mother, Yolanda George, said she was alerted when one of the friends rang her at home.

'She told me that Chris had fallen into the lake and he had been underwater for 20 minutes or so,' George told Fox8.

'And I was like, 20 minutes? Why was he underwater for 20 minutes?

'And she was just crying hysterically and he was being airlifted to Shreveport.

'And initially when my son got there the doctor called us in and told me that at this time he was "brain dead pretty much, and the rest of his organs were starting to fail".'

George raced to the center where she found her son clinging to life.

'I was devastated, I felt like my life had ended in a moment,' she said. 'My son is aspiring to be a medical doctor, he got his masters last year. My son is so sweet, the most selfless being you'll ever meet, I was in a terrible state.'

Outside she found some of the group in the hospital waiting room.