South Carolina 15-Year-Old Walks Off Soccer Field with a Headache — It Turns Out to Be a Brain Bleed (Exclusive)

“I’m thankful for the blessings that are happening in the mix of something devastating,” Jase McDowell’s mom Amanda tells PEOPLE

Jase McDowell walked off the field near the end of his soccer game on March 26, saying he had the worst headache of his life.

The high school freshman from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, covered his right eye with his hand and started vomiting. As the 15-year-old lay down on the sidelines, people thought he might have a migraine, or possibly a concussion — a few spectators thought he got hit in the head with a ball. As athletic trainers examined him, his father, Rob McDowell called 911.

On the way to Grand Strand Medical Center, Jase was slurring his speech and having seizures as he slipped in and out of consciousness. At the hospital he was diagnosed with a ruptured arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a tangle of blood vessels that connects arteries and veins in the brain, according to Mayo Clinic. The rupture caused bleeding in his brain.

Jase was rushed into emergency surgery to try to stop the bleeding. About one in 100,000 people a year are diagnosed with AVM’s, which usually aren’t detected before rupture. Left untreated, they can cause brain damage, stroke or death.

“The surgeon said, ‘I can’t promise you your son’s going to make it, but we at least have to try,’” says his mother, Amanda McDowell, a 46-year-old registered nurse.

Related: Mom Helped Save Son’s Life When He Told Her To Call 911 for Headache: ‘Listen to Your Kids.’

The two-hour surgery was successful and Jase was transported to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where a neuroendovascular surgeon performed an embolism to block blood flow to the AVM in hopes of shrinking it.

“I essentially went into the arteries inside his brain and filled the arteries supplying the AVM with basically medical-grade superglue,” says Dr. Jonathan Lena, a neurosurgeon at MUSC. “The goal is to reduce as much blood flow to that AVM as possible, and shut down that AVM. That’s what we were able to accomplish. … There’s no more blood going to that AVM right now.”

While it’s possible that a hit to the head by a soccer ball could have caused Jase’s bleeding, it might have been coincidental, according to Lena.

“Based on how his AVM looked, that thing was a ticking time bomb,” Lena says. “It was bound to rupture or bleed at some point. I’d be surprised if it was the soccer ball that caused it. It may have just been coincidental. I think this thing was going to bleed no matter what.”

As Jase recovered in the pediatric ICU, pressure increased inside his brain. That evening, he urgently needed an external ventricular drain to remove the excess blood and spinal fluid from his brain.

Doctors are now letting Jase rest — and letting his brain heal — before his next surgery April 15, when a surgeon will remove the AVM.

In the meantime, Jase’s eyes are still closed. He responds to questions with a thumbs-up or a hand squeeze. He can communicate if he’s hot, needs water, or wants a hug.

“He told me he loved me,” his mom says. “And when I came back from the cafeteria one time, he goes, ‘I missed you.’”

After any activity, he quickly falls back to sleep. His left side is weak. “It’s almost like a stroke,” his mother says.

Last weekend, a dozen of Jase’s friends gathered in his hospital room.

“It was just so heartwarming seeing them all around the bed,” his mom says. “It was just so sweet to watch them all crying and just loving their friend.”

McDowell is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support Jase has received, not just from friends in Myrtle Beach but across the country and around the world. “I’ve heard people that know people are praying,” his mom says.

Beach Church in Myrtle Beach is holding a prayer gathering the day before his next surgery. Friends are making #JaseStrong T-shirts. And a local non-profit, Charlotte’s Greyces Foundation, has launched a fundraiser to help Jase and his family. A meal train has been established to donate restaurant gift cards or food delivery to help McDowell’s parents who are caring for her other two children who both have special needs: 13-year-old  Adaya, who was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and a genetic condition called RYR1, and McDowell’s youngest, 12-year-old Kamden, who has autism.

“I’m trying to honestly just look at the positives. It’s devastating where he’s at right now,” Jace’s mother says.

She’s grateful her son was taken to the hospital and treated quickly enough to save his life.

“AVM’s can rupture just out of the blue. He could have been asleep. I think it’s a Godsend that it happened where it did and how it did.,” she says. “I’m thankful for the blessings that are happening in the mix of something devastating.”

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