Diverville, Mississippi (WLOX) – The critical condition of Dumar Hamlin after he collapsed on a football field Monday night brings back tragic memories to one Coast family.
Latrell Dunbar was playing for the D’Iberville High School football team in 2011 when he collapsed during a game. He died of cardiac arrest while on the field he received CPR.
Stephen Ramsey is the team’s volunteer coach and still remembers the day Dunbar collapsed on the field.
“While we were out on the field I could see that he was in pain. He took a deep breath and I knew everything was going wrong,” Ramsey said.
It was a night that both his coach and his mother will never forget.
“There’s no handbook that coaches have that says, ‘Hey, this is what you do when a player goes down on the field.’ There’s nothing to prepare you for that,” Ramsey said.
“Within seconds it was completely silent and people were running around saying, ‘I think it’s your kid on the field,'” said Pheon Dunbar, Latrell’s mother.
Although Luttrell is remembered as the star of his team, those closest to him said he was more than that.11 years later, friends and family still look back fondly on Luttrell’s positive spirit. increase.
“He honestly gave me a shirt on his back…and it was hard to lose that kid,” Ramsey said.
“Even if you say you’re going to take him off the team if he doesn’t improve, he’ll do whatever it takes to get him on the field,” Dunbar said. “He really enjoyed football, so he was going to do whatever it took to be on that field.”
Many years have passed since his death, but Ramsey and Dunbar said they helped their faith and their community move forward from the tragedy.
“God has a purpose and a place for everything,” said Ramsey. “We may not understand what it is right now, but we need to trust and know that God will take care of us.
“Just hearing how much they loved him and how much joy he brought into their lives was reassuring to know that everything would be fine,” Dunbar said.
Latrell Dunbar’s family says they want all schools to have working defibrillators and ensure procedures are in place to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.
If someone goes into cardiac arrest, doctors and health care professionals recommend doing CPR until help arrives.
Dr. Matthew Han of Memorial Hospital said learning CPR could be the difference between life and death in an emergency.
“Chest compressions save lives. We’ve had some patients who had bystander CPR from untrained family members who were discharged and survived,” Han said. “That’s why chest compressions save lives.”
Han encourages everyone to attend a CPR class in case of an emergency.
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