A 16-year-old Pea Ridge student spent four days in the Intensive Care Unit of a local hospital due to effects from severe dehydration.
Donovan Reyes, son of Judy and Genaro Reyes, had just joined the Blackhawk football team and been at two practices when he collapsed on his way home.
He had been to practice, then to the free summer lunch at Pea Ridge Primary School, Mrs. Reyes said, before beginning his walk home on Hayden Road. He didn't make it home. He passed out and was found lying unconscious on the sidewalk.
On June 12, Judy Reyes sent a Facebook message to The TIMES stating: "16 year old boy collapse on Hayden road after football practice from dehydration.""I found him on the sidewalk. He wasn't moving. He wasn't doing nothing," she said, adding that she called the ambulance and he regained consciousness when given intravenous fluids.
"My son was thinking it was not cool to drink water, that it made him look weak," Mrs. Reyes said.
Reyes suffered from rhabdomyolysis, his mother said, and was in so much pain during the initial stages of the dehydration that he was put on morphine. He still is suffering the effects of the lack of fluids and is recovering at home.
"The school is by no means responsible," Mrs. Reyes said. "I've told the coach I put no blame on him. He tells them every time they go to practice to feed the machine and to drink water."
"I don't want another kid to go through what he went through. He could have died," she said. "Maybe this will help somebody else's kid."
"If they start looking tired, get them to drink water," Reyes advised. She said her son wasn't eating or drinking the way he should have. "You have to harp on them!"
General News on 06/22/2016