Fourteen-year-old volleyball player Delilah Mendez collapsed during practice after an undiagnosed heart condition caused her to faint. Blood clots and circulation problems later led to the amputation of part of her left leg. (Foto: Instagram)
Delilah Mendez, a 14-year-old volleyball player, collapsed during practice in Arizona after an unexpected heart condition caused her to faint. She spent 60 days in the hospital, underwent heart surgery and had half of her left leg amputated after developing blood clots and circulation problems.
“I couldn’t breathe, and at the same time, I felt dizzy,” Mendez told local media. Her mother, Rosie Mendez, said her daughter briefly had no pulse when she collapsed. Doctors later told the family that Mendez had a preexisting heart problem they had not known about.
Mendez was rushed to a local hospital and then flown to another facility in Phoenix. There, she was connected to a machine that circulates blood outside the body to keep her alive. Doctors discovered her congenital heart condition and took her into surgery immediately.
During her recovery, Mendez developed blood clots and circulation problems that led to the loss of part of her left leg. After being discharged, she said she is determined to return to volleyball. She hopes to earn a college scholarship to play and to learn to walk with a prosthesis. “It will be very difficult, but I think I can get through it. I want to face this, learn to walk again with the prosthesis and do everything I used to do,” she said.
