How Terribly Sad

A high school football player in Texas died from an apparent seizure last night, Friday, just after throwing his second touchdown pass of the game.
From The Beaumont Enterprise: West Orange-Stark football player Reggie Garrett died Friday after he collapsed on the sideline during a high school football game at Dan R. Hooks Stadium.
Garrett appeared unresponsive as medics carted him off the field following his collapse midway through the second quarter. Medics loaded Garrett into an ambulance and the game continued to its conclusion, a 27-6 victory for WO-S against Jasper.
Garrett was pronounced dead at Memorial Hermann Baptist-Orange at 9:30 p.m. Friday night, according to hospital spokeswoman Mary Poole.
Garrett arrived at the emergency room at 8:30 p.m. Poole said an autopsy has been ordered and the death is being investigated.
WO-S coach Dan Hooks said Garrett appeared to experience a seizure. Hooks said Garrett’s mother said Garrett had suffered a seizure “maybe three years ago,” said Hooks, who credited Garrett as a much-improved team leader.
A 6-foot-2, 175-pound senior quarterback, Garrett had just thrown his second touchdown pass of the game and trotted to the sideline. He collapsed after an extra point gave WO-S a 21-0 lead.
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/sports/high-school/WO-S_quarterback_taken_off_of_field_by_stretcher.html
Several thoughts came to mind when I read this. First, how sad it for the family, the players and coaches along with the people in the stands to witness such a tragedy.
Second, as a person who has witnessed a minimum of over 15,000 seizure in my lifetime due to my different jobs, I find it hard to believe that someone can die of a seizure, especially if they are treated right away, but it happens sometimes. I'd be willing to bet it was something other than a seizure that killed this young man.
Third, if this happened at a CCSD football gam can the same thing happen. It's possible. We don't have ambulances at the games, so if someone is hurt or has a seizure, they need to rely on trainers and coaches for first aid before an ambulance gets there. While they are trained in emergency first aid, the are not paramedics and cannot give medication to stop seizures. The schools do have an AED defibrillator in case there is cardiac arrest. If a person needs an ambulance, they have to wait for an ambulance for several minutes. I would suggest that high schools ask the area fire departments along with AMR/Medic West to have an ambulance stage at games, though the ambulance would be available for calls in their area. The cost of having an ambulance staged at a high school stadium, during the game would cost too much, so if the ambulances could be staged close to the stadiums, that may help during emergencies.
Third, look how fragile life is. You throw a touchdown pass and you are dead a few minutes later. I question the wisdom of continuing to play after the kid was taken to the hospital. The players probably had their minds on Reggie Garrett and they could have been seriously hurt because their thoughts were else where and not concentrating on the game.
Even though I am tempted to throw the remote while watching today's Badger game because of the Badger's poor play, this puts things in perspective. It's just a game and there is a family in Texas, mourning at the loss of their son who died while playing football.
May God bless Reggie Garrett's family, histeamates and coaches, students and fans of West -Orange Stark. How very sad.