A 14-year-old boy has suffered a stroke while attending a wrestling camp – leaving him on a ventilator after he was rushed to hospital for emergency brain surgery.
Luke Champion, from Tuttle, was attending a camp at Oklahoma State University and had just won a fight when he lost consciousness on Thursday.
He remains in hospital but is awake, off the ventilator he originally required for support and is beginning his recovery, his mother told News 4.
Medical professionals are still not sure what caused the blood clot and whether or not it was genetic.
Luke’s mother, Valorie Champion, told the outlet of the terrifying moment she realized her son had experienced a stroke.
‘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,’ she said.
‘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 she moved fast as she knew it was a stroke after her other child had suffered one as a baby.
Once they arrived at the hospital ‘he immediately went in and had a thrombectomy, which is when they go in and basically retrieve the clot,’ Luke’s mother told the channel.
‘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’ she explained.
On Monday doctors woke Luke up and took him off his ventilator.
In a video taken from his hospital bed Luke told News 4 he is ‘doing good.’
The 8th grader starts physical therapy on Tuesday and the doctors have said his recovery will be ‘a marathon not a sprint.’
Luke’s friends and members of the community came together for a vigil at Tuttle Middle School on Monday.
‘We’re gathering tonight just to pray and lift up him and his family hopefully for a smooth recovery,’ Kristen Finn, a Tuttle teacher and coach told News 4.
‘We just ask that people join us in praying’ she added.
In his video message Luke said he wanted to thank people for their prayers and then said ‘I love you.’
Valorie Champion said her son was very moved to hear of the vigil.
‘It’s all kind of starting to crash in on him that he’s in the hospital, but that ‘we feel all the prayers. We feel all the love.’
Treadmill view: "Wrestler Recovering after Stroke at Camp." 🙏
Do I ask the question? 💉🤔
Oklahoma pic.twitter.com/YQZSOHCAIv
— Saraphina99 (@Saraphina992) June 28, 2023
