LITTLE ROCK, AR -- A Star City High football player is in a coma after getting an injury in a football game Thursday night. Zach Towers was rushed to Jefferson Regional Medical Center for surgery.
The senior linebacker had a seizure in between plays.
"As he was coming back to the huddle, he fell," said Coach Blair Brown.
Emergency crews rushed him to the hospital, where doctors performed emergency brain surgery. He made it ok, but he is in a coma.
His parents wanted him transported to Little Rock's Arkansas Children's Hospital, where he had been treated for a previous concussion. But nurses told her the teenager would not have made it alive if medics transported him.
Family members say Towers suffered a concussion earlier this season and sat out a game. After going through tests, his mother says doctors cleared him to play. But he didn't make it past the third quarter Thursday.
Friday night, about 500 friends of Towers' gathered to pray for a healing.
"The only thing you can do is pray, " said teammate Jarrett Frizel.
Friends also made t-shirts to support Towers. Teammates gathered throughout the day at JRMC to offer support.
"We care about him and the whole community is here," said Frizel.
Towers' mother tells Fox16 her son had a medical shunt put in when he was 4 months old. But it has not given him any problems since then.
After Towers was taken to the hospital, the game continued. Star City won the game and will participate in playoffs next week.
