A Florida high school football player suffered a serious injury over the weekend, highlighting the need for coaches and parents to be vigilant in monitoring the health of student-athletes before, during and after the game.
Nathan Dowie, starting quarterback at Hilliard High School, fell after scoring a touchdown but seemed to be fine until he started feeling ill after the game.
"He was feeling fine, got in the locker room and he started feeling really sick, and at that time the trainer knew we needed to call 911, get him to the hospital," Byron Crews, one of the team's coaches, told WSOC-TV.
Dowie’s father, Sean Dowie, thought that Nathan had hit his head after he scored a touchdown. "His head went into the ground and he sort of flipped over," he said. "We're sort of suspecting that may have been the time where it happened."
After being rushed to the hospital, doctors found bleeding on Dowie’s brain. He underwent surgery that night.
The school has decided to donate all proceeds from its 50/50 drawing to the Dowie family.
