CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Friday night lights are an exciting time in South Texas, but for one of our local 'faceoffs' that excitement quickly turned into anxiety for both teams, and the fans and parents in the stands.
It was the fourth quarter during the Odem Owl vs. Aransas Pass Panthers game with Odem at home, when everything stopped on a dime.
While our 3NEWS camera crews were there they did not film the incident on the field out of respect for the athletes.
The father of one of the Odem football players injured Friday explained what happened when the Panthers went to punt.
"Tim was coming from the left end, his teammate coming from the right end, his teammate went high, and Tim went low," Josh Rogers said.
This resulted in his son Tim taking a brutal hit to his head on the turf -- so hard his helmet flew off.
"When we look back and saw that Tim wasn't moving, that's when panic set in," he said.
Tim's father, said an EMS crew was able to get him to the HALO-Flight launch pad to help get his son to Driscoll Children's Hospital as quickly and safely as possible.
While all of this was happening, there was another medical emergency on sidelines. This time one of the Panthers needed help.
"He looked at his friend and said, 'I'm getting really hot;' next thing you know he starts leaning over and becoming unresponsive," mother of the Panthers player, Keshia Gunn said.
Gunn describes the chaos on the field that night as her son suffered from a heat illness.
"In the stands it was very hot it was very humid that night," she said. "He said they were on a turf field and turf makes more heat."
Gunn said although received excellent care, she is now pushing for updated UIL guidelines when it comes to heat safety.
"How to cool the patient properly in the event that two things are happening at once because we didn't have the opportunity to have EMS with us," she said. "Rightfully so, because the other kid needed him more."
Both families are thankful for the support they've received on and off the field.
"Just can't thank everyone enough for their concern and their prayers, on Tim's behalf and his teammate and the player from Aransas Pass." Rogers said. "Hopefully everybody comes out of this relatively unscathed and continue on with the sport that they love".