In what can only be described as a freak accident, an 11-year-old boy had a stroke after being struck by a soccer ball. The terrifying incident happened at school in Louisiana.
11-year-old Cole Ditmore had been on the playground and had a marker in his mouth. That's when a soccer ball struck him. It shoved the marker into the back of his throat. According to local outlet WAFB, his mother, Angelina Frazier, rushed her son to the ER. While she thought he had a concussion, she discovered the soccer ball caused the marker to puncture his throat and also gave him a stroke.
Ditmore "started slurring his words, half of his facial muscles started drooping, and he struggled to move his left arm."
Soccer Stroke
Doctors placed him on stroke protocol, determining that the marker compressed his carotid artery. It caused a blood clot, which led to the stroke. He spent four days in the ICU.
"The first thing I remember was waking up around 11 or 12 and seeing my dad and my mom just all there, and I hear them talking, but I couldn't respond and I couldn't talk," Ditmore told the outlet.
He was terrified.
"The first thing he said to me, he was like, 'Mom, am I going to die?' " said Frazier.
After the incident with the soccer ball, he has spent the past six months focused on recovering. The family is just glad that he's still alive after his terrifying ordeal.
"We were where we were supposed to be when we needed to be, because had he not presented the stroke in front of the ENT, they wouldn't have been able to act as quickly as they did," Frazier told WAFB.
He still has some ways to go. The 11-year-old is still experiencing some issues and needs blood thinners.
"I've been trying my best to get back to my normal self. I don't know if I can, but I hope I can," the 11-year-old told the outlet.
