A high school football star suddenly collapsed just minutes into his first varsity game due to cardiac arrest.
Collin Cottom was seen in pictures obtained by KRMG lying in the middle of a field at Victory Christian School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as medics rushed to his side to resuscitate him on August 26, 2022.
Medics could then be seen loading the unconscious student onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.
Cottom would spend days in a coma at a local hospital, but was able to miraculously survive.
He has now spent the past two years advocating for awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, which is the leading cause of death in young athletes in the United States, while he and his mother remain grateful to another mother whose hands saved Cottom’s life.
Collin Cottom suddenly collapsed on the field of a high school football game on August 26, 2022 due to cardiac arrest.
On game day, Cottom walked onto the field and faced an edge rusher he was nervous about when he suddenly collapsed.
“We were talking to other parents, waiting for the next play, and things stopped,” said his father, Darren. he told the Tulsa World.
‘We looked around and saw a lot of players and we saw a leg sticking out, like it was in the air. We thought, “Ah, someone has a cramp.” It’s not a big deal, it’s hot.
‘So we were like, “I wonder what number that is.” So we started counting numbers and we were like, “Hey, I think it’s Collin. But it’s probably just a cramp or something.”
But as players began to leave the field, Cottom’s parents realised something must be wrong and Darren ran onto the field to see his son unconscious and barely breathing.
His eyes were rolled back in his head and his breathing was labored.
Images from the scene show family members standing by as medics treated Cottom.
He was then loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance as the crowd cheered.
One doctor then tried to check for a pulse, while another worked to clear his airways.
They tried chest compressions and a woman in the stands carried an oxygen tank with a breathing mask.
Eventually, doctors cut off Cottom’s football jersey and pads, and Darren watched in horror as doctors applied the AED pads to his son.
Meanwhile, Cottom’s mother, Karissa, made her way to the field and collapsed to the ground in horror as people around her prayed for her son.
It’s unclear how many times the AED sounded before Cottom was loaded into an ambulance.
Once in the emergency room, doctors placed a breathing tube and stabilized Cottom, although he was in a coma.
“We didn’t know if he was going to wake up. We didn’t know how he was going to wake up,” Karissa said.
Cottom, second from left, was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a disorder that increases abnormal heart rhythms and cardiac arrest. He is pictured with his family.
While sleeping, Karissa and Darren received a message from the nurses’ desk saying that members of the opposing team were in the hospital with gifts.
“They gave us a basket with a bunch of gifts, a soccer ball signed by all of them, a bunch of posters,” Darren said.
“They had just been defeated and they were a group of great kids.”
After a few days, Collin woke up and was back to his old self, his parents said.
Doctors would later fit him with a defibrillator and pacemaker to help control his heart rhythm, as a genetic test showed he had Brugada syndrome, a disorder that increases abnormal heart rhythms and cardiac arrest.
Karissa now credits Kingston Whitmore’s mother for saving her son’s life.
Cottom’s parents now credit Lori Whitmore, Kingston Whitmore’s mother, with saving his life.
Whitmore, who had a rare genetic condition, had served as honorary captain of the Victory Christian School team for the past three seasons.
The night Cottom collapsed, Whitmore’s mother, Lori, brought one of her son’s oxygen tanks and a breathing mask to the field.
Karissa believes oxygen saved her son from brain damage.
Sadly, Kingston died earlier this year at the age of 13, living 1,000 times longer than expected.
When Cottom and his mother attended the funeral, the Whitmore family said Kingston was born to help save Collin’s life.
“It’s his funeral and the fact that he brought me back to life, and that was probably his purpose in life – I mean they went so far as to say his purpose in life was to save me. That’s pretty touching,” Cottom said.
Kingston’s obituary also mentions Cottom by name.
“It is heartwarming to know that God was able to use the extraordinary life of a terminally ill child who was given only five days to live, was globally disabled, legally blind and deaf, unable to walk, talk or do anything for himself, to save another person’s life simply by showing up.”
Cottom now says that when she attends the University of Georgia in the fall, she will wear a bracelet that says, “Run your race for Kingston.”
She will also continue her mission to educate others about sudden cardiac arrest.
“Before it happened to me, I had never heard of cardiac arrest,” Cottom said. “I was lucky in my case, but other people might not be so lucky.”
Cottom pushed for a bill requiring all public schools to have a cardiac emergency response plan. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the measure in July.
He He told how he ignored warning signs that something was wrong with his heart before the cardiac arrest.
“In training, I was trying my hardest,” he said. “One day, we were running around the stands, it was just the juniors and the seniors, and I was trying so hard that I passed out.”
Cottom was unconscious for five minutes before an ambulance arrived, and when he was taken to a local hospital, one of his EKGs (a test that assesses heart health) did not reflect the hospital’s condition well.
But a second test came back clean, and doctors attributed the strange result of the first test to heat exhaustion at the time.
In retrospect, though, “this was kind of a prequel to the main thing,” Cottom said.
He said he is now raising awareness about cardiac arrests in young athletes, and he and his family successfully lobbied Oklahoma officials to pass a bill requiring all public schools to have a cardiac emergency response plan.
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the measure into law in July.
