A high school football player from Long Island is on life support after collapsing on the field during practice this week.
17-year-old Robert Bush was on the field for Monday practice for only about four minutes before passing out due to a reported “cardiac event.”
Bush’s coaches performed CPR on the teen and tried shocking him with a defibrillator as they awaited medical support. When emergency first responders arrived, they transported him to Stony Brook University Hospital, but Bush had been without blood or oxygen in his brain for about 45 minutes.
Speaking to News 12, Bush’s older brother, Steve Bush, said, “His heart had stopped on the field, down for about 45 minutes of longer without a pulse. He’s currently still on a vent in an induced coma and they’re doing everything to keep him alive at this point.”
“There’s no more brain function,” Steve told Newsday. “We are dealing with the end right now.”
It is unknown why Bush suddenly collapsed.
According to his family, the high schooler had not shown any previous signs of a heart condition. However, his family suggested he could have had a genetic condition that thickens the walls of the heart’s left ventricle and causes the heart to stop receiving enough blood.
Bush, who had ambitions to make it on the school’s varsity football team, was adopted by parents Robert and Patricia when he was just a baby.
Bush was not the only child to be fostered by this couple, and Bush had 10 siblings ranging in age from 16 to 56 years old.
In 2017, Patricia passed away from cancer, and Robert is now dealing with severe medical issues.
Another brother of Bush’s, Chris, told Newsday that he raised Robert and taught him to play football. Chris praised his younger brother for his motivation and for “always trying to make himself better.”
“He wanted to get married. He wanted to have kids like all of us. So, as you can tell, knowing where he was in his life and how far he’s taken it just in the last two years, it’s killing us,” said Chris.
Holding on to a sliver of hope, Chris urged others to pray for his brother, saying, “We need prayers right now. We want him to survive.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to help support Bush’s family.
