The mother of a Mountain View High School football player suffered two aneurysms after her son was seriously injured in a game last weekend.
Lucinda Daniels is not expected to survive, according to a GoFundMe page and later confirmed by school officials.
“She was at every game with her pom-poms,” Mountain View coach Tim Lugo said Monday. “You don’t hear many parents from the stands, but you would always hear her.”
In a scene described as “surreal,” both of Dillon Daniels’ parents rushed to be with their son after the senior suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle just before halftime Friday against The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale.
The boy’s father, Dale, fainted while kneeling next to his son, prompting King’s Academy officials to call a second ambulance to the field.
After the father checked out OK, Lucinda collapsed and had to be rushed to a hospital.
“Mom was fine,” TKA executive athletic director Joe Maemone said Monday. “She was on the phone. It looked like she was talking to family members, letting them know what was going on. Then Dad gets up. He was fine. Coherent.”
But as paramedics continued to treat the injured player, Lucinda suffered an aneurysm.
“We’re standing around, thinking, ‘Lord, what is happening here?’ It was so surreal,” Maemone said. “You almost think this was just a bad dream that you’re going to wake up from.”
Saturday night, Lucinda suffered a second aneurysm that left her with no brain activity, according to Lugo.
Helen Cittadino, who organized a GoFundMe page for the family, wrote, “Anyone who knows Lucinda, knows that she has one of the biggest hearts you’ve ever seen and in keeping with that spirit, she is an organ donor. … We hope you find some solace in knowing that her passing will give the gift of life to numerous others and allow her love to continue to spread through the world.”
Lugo said Lucinda “was a very giving person, and even in the end, she’s going to continue to give.
“That’s the nature of who she was. There’s some solace for her kids to know that she’s going to live on in other people.”
As of Monday night, the GoFundMe fundraiser had raised $34,200 of its $50,000 goal.
TKA plans to make a contribution, Maemone said.
“You could tell they were a really close family,” the TKA administrator added. “I am meeting with the head of school (Tuesday) to see what else we can do. Everybody in the TKA community, our hearts are so heavy right now. We are in a very deep state of sadness.”
Dillon Daniels, the second-oldest of four siblings, is scheduled to undergo surgery on Thursday for his injury.
Both Dillon and his brother, Brandon, who is also on the team, attended practice Monday.
“They just want to be with their friends, and I can’t blame them for that,” Lugo said. “I think that we, as a community, have to give them some level of normalcy. And the family wants us to play.”
Mountain View, which beat TKA 48-34, is scheduled to play at home on Friday against Live Oak.