6-year-old dies of heart attack while taking baseball team pictures
A 6-year-old boy died of a sudden heart attack while taking baseball team pictures in Rock Spring, Georgia, WTVC-TV reports. Brantley Chandler took his solo photo in his baseball uniform, and was on the field getting ready to take the team picture when he collapsed, his mom, Meghan Bryson told WTVC-TV.
Bryson said her son was born with a rare congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The condition, known as HLHS, is a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart, according to the Centers for Disease Control. "As the baby develops during pregnancy, the left side of the heart does not form correctly," the CDC says.
The heart defect occurs in 960 babies born in the United States each year. Symptoms in newborns include problems breathing, pounding heart, weak pulse, or ashen or bluish skin color, according to the CDC.
The 6-year-old died March 28, 2019, at 8:53 p.m., according to an obituary published by Lane Funeral Home. "Brantley was an outgoing little boy who was in the first grade at Chickamauga Elementary School," the obit reads. "When he was not playing baseball, Brantley could be found enjoying what the outdoors had to offer."
"He loved hunting, fishing, spending time with his hunting dog 'Boss,' riding four wheelers, and playing in the mud getting his boots dirty! Brantley could ask more questions than anyone in a minute, he loved tractors and heavy equipment, and he attended Faith Baptist Church in Ringgold," the obituary reads.
On Sunday, Brantely's teammates attended the funeral in their baseball uniforms, paying homage to their catcher. The boy is survived by his father and stepmom, mother and step dad, two sisters, a brother and four grandparents.