Bowie High School football player suffers heat stroke during game

AUSTIN, Texas - Justice Trumpler’s first football game of his senior season at Bowie High School landed him in the ICU.

"I did not think it was life-threatening," said his mother, Jennifer Norman-Wolfe. "I just thought, wow, this is a tough game."

Trumpler started experiencing cramping, vomiting and even collapsed a couple of times, but he kept playing. When he got home, the vomiting continued. He ended up in the hospital, and at one point, didn’t recognize his own family. 

"Several doctors told me he was near death. He was dying just from the heat and overexertion," said Norman-Wolfe. "These kids are passionate about their sport, but I think that we have to rethink things with this extreme weather and any sort of outdoor sports. It might have to be a big adjustment, like play games in the morning temporarily...it’s not Friday night lights…but we just have to look at it in a different way if this heat is going to continue."

Norman-Wolfe noted that her son begins hydrating in the two days before football games with Gatorade, Pedialyte, sodium tablets and water.

"Even when he did all he could do to be hydrated and prepared, he still became depleted of all the necessary things your body needs."

Norman-Wolfe says it's important for everyone to pay attention to signs like cramping and vomiting.

"We're from Texas. We know Texas is hot, but this is a different kind of hot. So it's become much more dangerous when you see signs like that. When kids are cramping, they need rest. They need to cool down," she said.

She says it's about finding the right balance between playing sports and safety.

"There could be some basic changes in protocol and rules that make it a little safer," she said.

There are multiple types of heat illness. Heat stroke is the most serious and potentially deadly.

"It looks very similar to so many other things, like a concussion. It could look similar to somebody being hypoglycemic. It could look like maybe a sudden cardiac arrest because you could see them collapse," said Dr. Becca Stearns, chief operating officer at the Korey Stringer Institute. 

RELATED: Central Texas high school football games delay start times due to heat

KSI conducts research and works to get new policies implemented nationwide to protect athletes. It was founded in honor of former NFL player Korey Stringer who passed away from exertional heat stroke during preseason training in 2001.

"We know there are gaps currently in terms of the safety and protections in place and specifically, unfortunately, for the high school athletes, because they are one of not only the largest populations that we have in terms of who's at risk within the United States, but also in terms of who is the least protected," said Dr. Stearns. "We know that high school athletes, unfortunately, don't always have the same protections that, say, collegiate, professional and even like laborers or the military would have in place. So, we're working really hard to close that gap."

The UIL recently released updated heat safety guidelines based on a different type of heat index, WetBulb Globe Temperature (WBGT). WBGT is "a measure of the heat stress in direct sunlight" that takes into account a variety of factors including humidity and sun angle. 

"It gives a range of temperature measurements, either green, yellow, orange or red. And when they are different colors, it means you have different actions that you take. So it could mean modification of gear to wear or how often you should take water breaks or if it's the worst, just cancel practice altogether till the values get lower," said Will Hatheway, a Hays County-based meteorologist. "The reason why it's so important is because unlike a heat index, the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature gives recommendations on what to do when it reaches a certain threshold. The activity modification is the big thing. It also is a localized measurement. So, you can take the measurement on the field at your location."

Click here to learn more about symptoms of heat illnesses and read the UIL guidelines.