Luke Champion Oklahoma teen has stroke after winning wrestling match and is forced to have emergency brain surgery as questions are asked what led up to the moment?
A 14-year-old Oklahoma boy had to undergo emergency surgery after suffering a stroke moments after winning a wrestling match last week.
Luke Champion, an eighth-grader who also plays football and basketball at Tuttle Middle School, had just won his last match at a wrestling camp at Oklahoma State University when he was stricken, KFOR reported.
‘I just commented to his brother that he looked sleepy and then he laid back and I’m like, ‘We’re going have to go wake your brother up because he has to wrestle again,’’ the teen’s mom Valorie Champion told KFOR.
What’s causing strokes amongst young people?
‘I yelled at him to wake up and he opened his eyes and as soon as he did, his face drooped and he started slurring his words,’ she said, adding that she yelled for someone to call 911.
Valorie said she knew her son probably suffered a stroke because her other son had one as an infant.
Luke was rushed to Stillwater Medical Center and then transferred to OU Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, where he underwent several brain surgeries.
‘He immediately went in and had a thrombectomy, which is they go in and basically retrieve the clot,’ Valorie told KFOR. ‘He started experiencing some brain swelling and not just really waking up. They went in and did a craniotomy, which is basically they open up the side of his skull and it allows for his brain to expand.’
On Monday, Luke was taken off the ventilator and now is on the way to recovery.
‘Hi guys I’m doing good!’ he told the outlet.
The local community held a vigil for the young wrestler.
‘We’re gathering tonight just to pray and lift up him and his family hopefully for a smooth recovery,’ coach and teacher Kristen Finn said. ‘We just ask that people join us in praying.’
His mom said doctors are still unsure what caused the blood clot and whether it was genetic.
Meanwhile, Luke was set to begin physical therapy.
‘They keep telling us it’s a marathon, not a sprint,’ Valorie said. ‘Just continue to pray. We feel all the prayers. We feel all the love.’
The incident has since led to some social media commentators wondering if the boy’s mother forced her teen son to get the COVID shot along with boosters – with some health professionals questioning whether the incidence of respiratory and stroke ailments are linked to the vaccine.
Others meanwhile noted the older sibling previously having a stroke as a hereditary factor.
