US News: American football player Medrick Burnett Jr passes away a month after head-on-head collision in Alabama game
An American football player passed away a month after a head-on-head collision during a college game.
Medrick Burnett Jr was playing for Alabama A&M University against Alabama State University on 26 October – the day before his birthday – when the severe injury occurred.
His sister shared on his GoFundMe page that the 20-year-old linebacker had “several brain bleeds and swelling of the brain” following the collision in Birmingham, a city in the southeastern US state.
As a “last resort” to save his life, Dominece James mentioned he underwent a craniotomy – the surgical removal of part of the skull to expose the brain.
The Alabama A&M athletic department initially announced his passing on Wednesday but later retracted the statement, mentioning the news came from “an immediate family member”.
The Jefferson County coroner confirmed on Friday that Burnett Jr had passed away on Wednesday evening.
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The freshman hailed from Lakewood, California, and joined Alabama A&M in the summer after starting his college career at Louisiana’s Grambling State University.
