ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\nScarborough alerted head coach Rob Haynes, who immediately brought Gamboa over to evaluate him. After checking his condition, the trainer realized something was seriously wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the readings, and they weren\u2019t matching up with what was being shown,\u201d Gamboa said. Scarborough then called his mother, Joanna Scarborough, from the trainer\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
His mother, Joanna. Instagram\/@scarborough_mama<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called me from the trainer\u2019s office and said, \u2018Mom, I\u2019m having a hard time breathing. The trainer wants to talk to you. From there, he said \u2018We\u2019re calling EMS,\u201d she told ABC.<\/p>\n
Paramedics rushed the Clovis native to Community Regional Medical Center, where doctors initially believed they were dealing with an aneurysm.<\/p>\n
Once surgery began, however, they discovered the far more dangerous diagnosis: an aortic dissection, a life-threatening tear in the body\u2019s main artery.<\/p>\n
Doctors initially believed they were dealing with an aneurysm. Instagram\/@scarborough_mama<\/p>\n
Scarborough underwent a grueling nine-hour operation that his mother said was successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey thought it was an aneurysm, and when they got in there, it was an aortic dissection, which was a lot more serious,\u201d Joanna Scarborough said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve heard is that only 30% of people to whom this happens actually make it to the hospital,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
His mother said the diagnosis came as a complete shock because her son had never experienced heart problems.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been playing since he was in first grade. GoFundMe<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been playing since he was in first grade. He\u2019s been playing competitively since fourth grade,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Scarborough recently graduated from Clovis High School after helping lead the Cougars to the Central CIF Division Two championship this year.<\/p>\n
The fundraiser has nearly reached its $20,000 goal to help cover medical expenses. GoFundMe<\/p>\n
His family credits Fresno City College\u2019s athletic staff with recognizing the emergency and acting without hesitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the heroes here. They recognized it and they made the call to get him here in time,\u201d Joanna Scarborough said.<\/p>\n
His family credits Fresno City College\u2019s athletic staff.<\/p>\n
For Gamboa, the frightening ordeal reinforced the importance of emergency preparedness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit overwhelming. It\u2019s what you train for, hoping you never have to use it. But the fact that I actually got to implement it and save someone\u2019s life is very gratifying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A GoFundMe<\/a> created for the family says Scarborough began experiencing \u201csevere chest pain\u201d during practice before doctors discovered the aortic dissection.<\/p>\nThe fundraiser has nearly reached its $20,000 goal to help cover medical expenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 18-year-old freshman suddenly suffered a life-threatening tear in his aorta on the basketball court, despite having no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,162346,17227,2044,127],"class_list":["post-404741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-hearts","tag-high-school-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}