Report: High school football player in Florida taken off life support, organs will be donated

A high school football player in St. Petersburg, Florida was, taken off life support Monday after he'd been rushed to the hospital with brain bleeding three days ago, the Tampa Bay Times reported. 

Northeast High School's Jacquez Welch, 17, made a tackle Friday night against Osceola and did not get up, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Paramedics rushed his unresponsive body to the hospital where it was discovered he had an arteriovenous malformation (Brain AVM), a tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic. The condition normally goes undetected, and brain bleeding can result if ruptured. 

His mother, Marcia Nelson, told a group of well-wishers at a local church that doctors said seven lives would be saved as a result of his organ donation, the Tampa Bay Times said. Bay News 9 reported that Nelson told gatherers Welch was "completely brain dead." 

“Quez was a giving person. He would give to anyone and everyone if he had it,” Nelson said. “He wanted to do this.”

She also emphasized that football did not cause her son to collapse and that there was never an indication he had the condition. 

Earlier last week, former Northeast player Marquis Scott, 20, was shot and killed while riding his bike. Welch, one of the team's captains, presented Scott's jersey with a signed Vikings jersey prior to the game Friday. 

Welch had just received his first scholarship offer, from Division II Concordia University, last week.