Florida high school football player, 'completely brain dead' after collapsing during game, is taken off life support: reports
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The high school football player in Florida who collapsed during a game on Friday was “completely brain dead” and was taken off life support on Monday, according to local reports.
Jacquez Welch’s organs will be donated, The Tampa Bay Times reported, adding that his mother said doctors told her seven lives would be saved by her son.
Bay News 9 reported that Welch’s mother, Marcia Nelson, provided the update that her son was "completely brain dead" at a gathering on Monday evening.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Welch, a senior football captain at Northeast High School in St. Petersburg, didn’t get up after a tackle during Friday night’s game against Seminole Osceola High School. His mom was at the game.
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"It was a group tackle. Everybody got up. He got up a little slow and he didn't get back up," she told the television station.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Paramedics rushed an unresponsive Welch to the hospital. Once there, doctors discovered the 17-year-old was suffering from severe bleeding on the brain from a preexisting condition, coach Jeremy Frioud said, according to the newspaper.
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Doctors reportedly said Welch had a brain arteriovenous malformation, a rare tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins, according to the Mayo Clinic.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A brain AVM may not cause any symptoms until it ruptures, but some signs can include seizures, headache or pain in one area of the head, muscle weakness or numbness in one part of the body, vision loss, severe unsteadiness and difficulty speaking.
Frioud described Welch as “an incredible kid.” He was a star athlete and a good student, and had already been recruited, receiving his first offer from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn., the newspaper reported.
Northeast High School reportedly plans to offer an annual $5,000 scholarship to a football player in Welch’s honor.
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