6 year old Georgia boy, Brantley Chandler dies after having heart attack while posing for group team photo. Born with rare heart defect.
A six-year-old Georgia boy died has died after suffering a sudden heart attack while posing for a team photo on a baseball field.
Brantley Neal Chandler was on the field with his teammates as they prepared to take the photo when he collapsed on Thursday.
His mother, Meghan Bryson, said her son loved baseball and he was the catcher for the Rock Spring Mustangs.
Bryson told WTVC that her son was born with a rare congenial heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS).
It stops the left side of the heart from developing normally.
The CDC reports that the syndrome is so rare, less than a thousand children in the United States are born with the defect each year.
The heart defect occurs in 960 babies born in the United States each year. Symptoms in newborns include problems breathing, pounding heart, weak pulse, or ashen or bluish skin color, according to the CDC.
Brantley’s mother says there’s no way she or any mother could’ve prepared for this.
Brantley was just two weeks away from opening day when he passed away.
The Rock Spring Athletic Association (RSAA) will hold a special tribute to Brantley on April 13.
In a Facebook post, the RSAA wrote that Brantley ‘was a joy to watch play baseball and always had a smile on his face’.
‘He will be missed dearly by his friends, teammates, coaches and mostly his family,’ the post reads.
Brantley’s funeral took place over the weekend. His teammates and coaches all came out to say their final goodbyes to the boy.
According to Brantley’s obituary, he was a first-grader at Chickamauga Elementary School.
He is survived by several family members, including his mother, father a sister and a brother.
His family described him as ‘an outgoing little boy’ who enjoyed ‘hunting, fishing, spending time with his hunting dog “Boss”, riding four wheelers, and playing in the mud getting his boots dirty’.
‘He will be truly missed by his family and all of the many people he touched,’ the obituary reads.
