IN SOLIDARITY
Teammates show support as hoops star Rayvonte Ball remains in intensive care after collapsing on court,
When Rayvonte Ball stepped around an opposing player on the basketball court and slumped to the floor, his teammates didn’t rush over immediately; they gave him some space.
The17-year-old who played on multiple teams was such a strong athlete they assumed it was just a cramp or something equally minor. “He was running up and down the court, we were giving him the ball, he was scoring. Then, one time, he came down for a defensive play . . . and he just fell face first on the floor, it was like a slow motion fall,” said Trayvone Clayton, a high school teammate at Central Tech.
His friend started convulsing, foaming at the mouth and when it was discovered his heart had stopped beating, CPR was administered, until the ambulance arrived.
“He’s still fighting but he hasn’t woken up yet, we’re just praying a miracle happens,” Clayton said.
He has been unconscious since that March 25 game and is in intensive care at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, where doctors are investigating whether he has Long QT syndrome, his mother Suzett Ball said.
That’s a heart-rhythm condition that can potentially cause fainting, seizures and, in some cases, death. It’s one of a handful of often undiagnosed heart conditions that strike down seemingly healthy young athletes every year.
“He’s never been sick, that’s the part I can’t wrap my head around,” Ball said.
All she knew was that she had a basketball-crazy son.
“Before he could walk, this kid had a basketball,” said Ball, a support worker in a Toronto homeless shelter, who is raising three boys on her own.
As her middle son grew older and more competitive, he couldn’t get enough basketball — with his Central Tech team, where he was the captain, a summer team and in the commu- nity-centre league where he was playing when something suddenly went terribly wrong with his heart last month.
When she first got the call that he had a seizure during a game, Ball, like his teammates, was thinking of how strong and healthy he was and wasn’t prepared for what she found at the Humber River Hospital, where he was initially taken.
“I saw all these people at one room and said, ‘Oh, that’s not his room, he only had a seizure.’ That looked more serious. Then I got to where everyone was standing and it was him — everything froze.”
That’s when she was told that Rayvonte’s brain had been without oxygen for as long as 20 minutes and that her teenage son had suffered severe brain damage.
“The part of the brain that is damaged is the one that deals with all your motor skills, walking, jumping,” she said.
The doctors are still running tests but, so far, “they don’t have a lot of positive news.”
His high school friends and teammates who come to visit are the bright spot in her days.
“They keep my mind distracted, they’ve been really great, these kids are amazing,” she said.
They also know that she hasn’t left her son’s side and isn’t working right now. And doctors have told her that, once he’s stabilized, she will be responsible for his care at home.
So Rayvonte’s friends have started a GoFundMe page to help the family.
“They didn’t even tell me they were doing it,” Ball said. “They did it and said, ‘Just so you know, we wanted to help and this is the way we thought we could help.’
“I really don’t know what to say, that’s not the first thing on my mind to think about. All that really matters to me right now is that I just want him to at least wake up.”
“Before he could walk, this kid had a basketball.” SUZETT BALL RAYVONTE BALL’S MOTHER