An 18-year-old Michigan teenager who collapsed on the court during his high school basketball game has now died, according to reports. The incident happened on January 31st, just three minutes into the Northwestern High School basketball game in Detroit, Michigan.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Mr. Cartier Woods, the teenager who collapsed and died, approached his coach just three minutes into the game and said “Coach, I’m dizzy. I need to come out.” The young man then collapsed on the court, suffering a cardiac arrest event before the coach could even react or pull him from the game. Describing that horrifying incident, one of the coaches at the game, Pierre Brooks, said:
“I heard a big bang and I thought it might be a fight or something. I looked over and it was Cartier that fell out and Coach Tyson jumped to action. You could just tell by the care and love for the kid, he was giving him CPR and I’m praying that he actually saved that kid’s life.”
Unfortunately, however, the CPR delivered by Coach Tyson did not save Cartier. Though EMT personnel arrived between just 5 and 10 minutes later, Coach Brooks said that it felt like an eternity, saying “It seemed like an eternity, but it was pretty quick.” And the EMT and hospital was unable to save Cartier, who passed away on February 6th.
The Detroit Free Press reported that, after the shocking event, Coach Tyson said “Right now, we’re just waiting to see exactly what the status is going to be on my player, Cartier Woods. We haven’t heard any updates from last night on him. I’m actually going to go up there a little later today and see if I’m able to give him a visit or whatever.”
Coach Brooks also said that the crowd at the game, which was paused and postponed, was in shock from what happened, In his words, “The whole crowd was in awe. They were gasping, based on what was going on.”
Continuing, he added that “I was terrified. My wife was yelling at me to get the players to the locker room, but I didn’t hear anything. I was praying for the young man that he was going to be OK. His players were distraught and upset and crying. Even my players were crying and upset.”
Despite the attempts of his coach, paramedics, and the hospital to save him, Cartier passed away on February 6th. According to the Detroit Free Press, the collapse on court and Cartier’s death was shocking to his family, as “had no known heart conditions.” Cartier’s sister created a GoFundMe to help the family handle the situation, saying:
Hi my name is Melonie Woods Cartier Woods Sister/Cousin my mom Dwanda Woods adopted him in her care since he was 3 days old and helped him along the way to do what he loved to do play SPORTS.Cartier went to Northwestern Highschool in Detroit and played both basketball and football and he’s now a senior and wanted to become a famous football or basketball player we supported him and wanted him to become just what he wanted to be! We are trying to raise money and get as many of prayers we can get to get Cartier back to himself and doing what he loved to do just like the famous football player please if you know anything the family can do let us know this is so sudden and so tragic to us!Cartier was such a great kid all he do was wanted to go to school play SPORTS AND BE WITH HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS PLEASE SUPPORT US AT THIS DIFFICULT TIME!
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
Featured image credit: GoFundMe
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