A 17-year-old student visited the nurse’s office after complaining of a severe stomach ache, two hours after, he dies. However, the cause of his death has left coroners shocked.
It was just another typical Tuesday in Pearland, Texas, or so it seemed. Joshua Gray was getting ready to go to Glenda Dawson High School. His mother handed him his lunch, the same sandwich he had always enjoyed since kindergarten: turkey with no bread crusts. Gray grabbed it and headed out the door to catch his friends, who would drive him to school.
Although Gray seemed to be a perfectly happy, healthy, smart, funny, and social student, this Tuesday was to be his last day. He would never get the chance to have lunch. No one could have known that he was about to become gravely ill as he sat quietly in class.
Around 11 a.m. Gray began having intense pain in his stomach. It was so bad, that he headed to the school nurse’s office. Soon it was clear this was no ordinary stomach ache, as the pain only grew more intense. The nurse called emergency responders and Gray was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital
Tragically, the 17-year-old died just hours after complaining of a stomachache. The cause of death was that an artery leading to Josh’s pancreas had ruptured – then Josh’s pancreas ruptured too. Doctors were unable to control the bleeding.
“He went from going to school yesterday morning — normal day, happy — to having a stomach ache, to within two hours not being with us anymore,” Josh’s mother, Laurie Gray, told KHOU.
What is even more tragic about this is there is no way to predict that this could happen. Laurie, and their family, have set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for the unexpected funeral costs. They are also working to raise money to help research at finding a cure for rare and underlying diseases.
The GoFundMe page had a goal of $30,000 and so far, has reached more than $35,800 in donations.
Sources: OpposingViews, KHOU, GoFundMe