Teen runner has heart attack at HS cross country meet, Tennessee officials say
A 17-year-old student and cross country runner had a heart attack after a race in Florida and was airlifted to a hospital, said school officials in Tennessee, where the boy attends high school.
Gabe Higginbottom, a junior at Bartlett High School near Memphis, competed in a race with his high school team in Pensacola, Florida, on Sept. 10. But afterward, “he didn’t bounce back,” according to a post on the cross country booster club’s Facebook page.
Kris Harman, a team coach, told WREG something just wasn’t right with Gabe after competing.
“He started complaining about his chest hurting and kept complaining and we went to the trainer’s tent…everybody initially thinks it’s hot, it’s heat exhaustion so give him ice but he’s still complaining about his chest,” Harman told the outlet.
Gabe was advised to get medical help, and he went to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola Hospital, according to information from the booster club, which was shared on Facebook by Bartlett City Schools. After a CAT scan there, he was airlifted to Shands Heart and Vascular Hospital in Gainesville.
Harman told WREG that doctors found Gabe had a blocked artery and performed a procedure to fix it.
“Now, they’re just trying to figure out what caused it,” Harman told the outlet.
Phil Clark, the athletic coordinator at Bartlett City Schools, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that doctors said the heart attack wasn’t heat related and that they don’t know what caused it.
“The doctor at the hospital he’s at, he told our track coach he had seen one (other) instance like this in his 11 years down there,” Clark said, the outlet reported.
He said Gabe is working toward recovery.
“They’re going to get him up and get him walking down the hallway this morning and they think everything is going to be fine,” Clark said Tuesday, Sept. 13, according to the the Commercial Appeal. “He’s a strong, healthy young man, which surely helped in this situation.”
McClatchy News has reached out to school officials for more information.
Bartlett is about 14 miles northeast of Memphis.
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