A Winnipeg high school football player who suffered a serious neck injury during a game two weeks ago has died.
“Our hearts are heavy today, but we take comfort in knowing that Dee is no longer suffering.” Stephanie Ciaralli posted on Facebook early Thursday morning.
“After heartfelt visits and final farewells from family and friends, early this morning he took his last breath of peace.“.
Ciaralli was raising Darius Hartshorne, better known to everyone as Dee.
“Dee, you are the son I chose to love every day, without hesitation. “I am deeply sorry for everything you have had to go through these last 12 days, but I am infinitely proud of the young man you have become and the path you have only just begun to travel,” the Facebook post read.
“Although your time here was too short, the love you gave us will live on in all of us.”
Hartshorne, a Grade 12 student who played for the Sisler Spartans, was injured when he was tackled while returning the kickoff of an Oct. 17 game against the Tec Voc Hornets.
“It is tragic and we are sending all kinds of support to those schools that will be deeply affected… to be there, to help people process and for anything else they might need,” Matt Hendersonsuperintendent of the Winnipeg School Divisionhe said Thursday morning.
“We just want to support the kids, we want to support our staff and the family.”
Hartshorne He was a very loved and valued member of the Spartans, head coach sean esselmont he told CBC News last week.
he called Hartshorne “One of the most genuine and wonderful young men I have had the pleasure of coaching in my entire time here.”
The team has been wearing decals on their helmets, featuring Hartshorne’s No. 57 jersey, and made sure his jersey was prominently displayed at games.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Ciaralli said Hartshorne had been placed inLast week he went into an induced coma due to a high fever that caused damage to his kidneys and liver and inflammation in his brain.
As of the weekend, he was no longer in an induced coma or under sedation, but he also didn’t wake up on his own. Ciaralli said.
“All the things we were seeing after the operation that gave us so much hope are no longer the same,” he wrote at the time.
Hartshorne turned 17 five days ago, wWhile in the hospital.
““I would give anything to take you home,” Ciaralli wrote two days later.
