Another incident of a young athlete collapsing on the field has come to light this week. A 17-year-old footballer, Robert Bush, from Selden, New York, suddenly collapsed during a training session earlier in the week.
According to Newsday, Bush had been on the field training for just a few minutes before he lost consciousness.
Bush is on life support following a cardiac event during conditioning drills at Newfield High School on Monday evening. His older brother, Steve Bush, informed Newsday that Robert had only been on the field for four minutes before suddenly bent over and passed out.
Despite CPR and defibrillation attempts by his coaches and medical teams who rushed him to Stony Brook University Hospital, the teen had gone without blood or oxygen to his brain for approximately 45 minutes.
Steve Bush further commented to the outlet that there is no more brain function. Although the cause of the collapse is unknown, the family believes it might be due to a hereditary condition that thickens the walls of the heart’s left ventricle, preventing it from getting or pumping enough blood.
Robert’s parents, Robert and Patricia, adopted him as a baby, and he has ten siblings ranging in age from 16 to 56 years old. Chris Bush, another brother, shared with the outlet that he had taught Robert how to play football and that Robert was always striving to get better because he was not naturally talented.
It is a tragedy for the family, as Steve Bush expressed in the interview that Robert was looking forward to having a life of marriage and having children, like his older siblings.