Posted on 03/04/2011 9:23:10 AM PST by Rennes Templar
A western Michigan high school basketball player collapsed on the court and later died after making the game-winning shot to finish off his team's perfect season.
Wes Leonard, a 16-year-old Fennville High School basketball player, died Thursday night, Holland Hospital spokeswoman Deb Patterson said. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
"It's tough to take in," Leonard's teammate Shane Bale, told The Holland Sentinel. "It's like somebody from your family, you know?"
Paramedics performed CPR on Leonard before he was pronounced dead at the hospital, Patterson said.
Leonard had scored the game-winning layup in a 57-55 win over Bridgman in overtime to cap Fennville's 20-0 season. He fell to the ground after teammates and fans rushed the court.
The final Facebook posting from the standout athlete was Wednesday night when he posted, "Got a good long shower...ready for bed and game tomorrow!"
Fennville Public Schools Superintendent Dirk Weeldryer remembered Leonard as "a wonderful kid" during a press conference Friday morning.
"Even with the accolades and people calling him a star ... he was very humble and down to earth, widely liked and admired," Weeldryer said.
Leonard also was a quarterback for the high school football team.
He's the second Fennville athlete to die in 14 months. Wrestler Nathaniel Hernandez died in January of 2010 after suffering a seizure at home following his participation in a high school wrestling match. He was 14.
In an interview with the Sentinel at Tuesday's practice, Fennville coach Ryan Klingler talked about how Leonard had a great drive to succeed and that he saw the "bigger picture."
"That's what makes him a little different. He takes care of his body better than probably anybody I've ever coached," Klingler said. "Spends a lot of time on his own in the weight room."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I can only imagine. When an accident, or even a disease like cancer, takes a young one like that, you can at least understand it and perhaps come to terms with it, but when it's something like that, so sudden, and without explanation, I don't know how a parent could deal with that.
I can’t imagine the pain his family and friends are going through right now.
How terrible.
It’s hereditary and I guess without a specific test you’d never know you had it until it’s to late. It’s truly sad for the family and classmates. Sounds like he was a good kid.
May God lead him into heaven.. Bless the family and I pray God is with them ..What a shock to them..
In order to help other young people, the family also should be aware that if this young man had been prescribed any medications recently, he may have suffered some side effect which was undetected, but which may contributed to his death.
Although all of us are aware of medication side effects, most may not be aware that there are now seveeral genetic tests which can be done to reduce the chance of being prescribed medications which either will not work or may have serious side effects because the patient is a Poor Metabolizer, an Intermediate Metabolizer, or an Ultrarapid Metabolizer.
Labs doing such tests include Lab Corp and AssureRx, but few doctors may be aware that lives can be saved, ineffective treatments avoided, and serious side effects sometimes avoided by giving patients a choice of such testing prior to prescribing high-powered medications which may alter their lives and those of their families. See.
Such may having nothing at all to do with this young man's death, but parents of an athlete who must take prescription medications, no matter how simple they may seem, might consider having the child tested for the type of drug-metabolizing enzymes unique to that individual. Genetic test results can be used throughout one's life, because they do not change, we are told.
A friend of mine who works in a university science department was ranting about energy drinks 3 years ago because of what the researchers were learning about them and how they are bad for teenagers. I don’t know if they published their research, but the friend was insistent that I make sure my children do not touch those drinks. But I have not heard any more from her since then.
Long QT syndrome.
I think they are disgusting too. But the coaches actually recommend them before an event if the kid is feeling a little under the weather just to get through the next hours, and even experts like Jillian Michaels say that caffeine before a workout, as long as you are hydrated, can enhance the workout somewhat.
I’m allergic to caffeine, fainted once when it was in a dessert in a restaurant, so I am not a fan, but I’d have to hear more about it being deadly before practice. Maybe the kids should drink a cold coffee drink instead? Coffee has been used for a long time.
read later
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/02/14/pediatrics-report-details-risks-energy-drinks/
I may be cynical about the brain power of the majority of high school coaches in the country, but I would NOT follow their advice regarding high doses of caffeine.
They did.
I’ve played coached and taught basketball for 54 years. This story has almost in tears it is such a stab in the heart. May God have mercy on this boy and ease the pain of his family and friends.
When I took my son into the heart center for a stress test and an echocardiogram, he leaned over and whispered to me "Mom, these are all OLD people".
Teenagers think of themselves as invincible. Only OLD people have heart conditions, etc., etc., etc.
ALL the men in my husband’s family have heart disease. That was my first thought when I read the article.
I know from personal experience. Discovered the hard way at 39 that I had it. Fortunately, I only went into tachycardia instead of the almost always fatal fibrillation. Now I get to walk around with a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted in my chest, but thankful to be alive and living a normal life.
This sometimes happens with new recruits (Army) whose condition is not discovered until they have a heart attack during PT. Tragic.
I have tachycardia. I won’t take the drugs they’ve tried to give me. The last time they gave me trenorman(sp?) made me feel terrible. I started taking extra magnesium and that seemed to help a lot. Mine is probably genetic, my mother and aunt have the same problem. If my heart really gets going wacky, I just sit, relax, take a slow deep breath and blow out slowly. Most of the time that does the trick, sometimes I have to do that two or three times.
He was also QB of the football team.
He was also QB of the football team.
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