Football player fights for life after hard hit reveals brain condition, Kansas mom says
A high school football player in Kansas is fighting for his life after a “hard hit to the helmet” revealed a rare and dangerous brain condition he didn’t know he had, his mother says.
Bowen Hoss, 15, was playing in a JV football game on Monday, Sept. 20 “when he took a helmet to helmet hit,” KAKE reported. Bowen plays for the Ness City High School Eagles.
“When we got to the sideline, I could see the terror in his face,” his mom Wendy Hoss told KAKE. “I knew something was really wrong. He couldn’t sit up, he couldn’t.”
Bowen was quickly taken to the Ness County Hospital’s emergency room, his mom said on Facebook, before he was flown to Wichita. It was there that they learned the teenager would require more specialized treatment, and the teen was flown once more to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
“We were unaware that Bowen was born with AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation),” his mom wrote on Saturday. “When he was playing football last Monday he took a hard hit to the helmet. The impact caused the AVM to rupture causing an aneurysm.”
An AVM in the brain “is a tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain,” according to the Mayo Clinic. The rare condition occurs in less than 1% of the population and is usually discovered after a brain scan for a different health issue or after the vessels rupture and cause brain bleeding.
In the same Saturday update, Wendy Hoss shared her son was taken into an emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. She said he’ll need to recover from that first surgery before doctors fix his AVM.
“When I asked him if he knows that we love him or he loves us, he blinks really hard so I’m certain that he’s hearing us,” she said, according to KAKE.
Tuesday morning, Wendy Hoss provided the latest update following Bowen’s MRI. Doctors noticed his drain needed to be repositioned, and after doing so, she said she saw an immediate difference in her son.
“His eyes/face had more reaction,” she continued. “Things were calm through the night. The first team of Dr’s were just in this morning and he started to open his eyes. They get in his face a bit and yell at him so I’m sure he wanted to open his eyes and tell them about it.”
Doctors are planning to do a tracheotomy on Wednesday, she said, to help keep him comfortable temporarily. That procedure is done to help provide more oxygen to the lungs.
“Our family would like to let everyone know how truly appreciative we are for all of the thoughts, prayers, donations, and kind words,” Wendy Hoss shared on Facebook. “It is absolutely incredible to see how many people are praying for Bowen and we believe we will see Gods hand directly heal and restore Bowen’s health. He is going to be a walking testimony of faith!”
Most people with AVMs are born with them, Mayo Clinic says, and while most cases occur in males, the cause is unknown. Some people experience symptoms, including seizures, headaches and muscle weakness, but in about half of the cases a brain AVM goes undetected until a hemorrhage, or bleeding in the brain.
“A bleeding brain AVM is life-threatening and requires emergency medical attention,” Mayo Clinic says.