Elijah Gorham's Death Inspires Training To Prevent Future Athletics Tragedies
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It has been nearly 10 months since Mervo High football player Elijah Gorham passed away after suffering a brain injury during a game.
Gorham's mother, Shantres Shaw, says it took nearly an hour for her son to be transported to the hospital.
"It's very important to get to the athletes, to actually get them to where they need to be," Shaw said.
Since the tragedy, Shaw has been calling for change, championing a bill named in her honor that would require middle schools and high schools to develop venue-specific emergency action plans for injuries and severe weather.
In April, Gov. Larry Hogan signed the Elijah Gorham act into law.
It went into effect on July 1, but that doesn't mean Gorham's family is done.
Since then, they have created the 7 Strong Foundation in honor of Gorham.
Run by his older sister Dayjah Allen, the family is using the foundation to continue to push schools to make sure they have the proper training and staff to handle specific injuries.
"Everyone has come together to agree his death was completely preventable," Allen said when talking about her brother's death. "So, we want to do what we can, get the schools involved, get the board of education involved, all the coaches and athletic trainers to basically come together to figure out how we can keep every player safe."
The foundation aims to help people in the sports world recognize signs of concussions, dehydration, and heatstroke.
Additionally, the foundation hopes to give parents and athletes peace of mind that should an accident happen the school will be equipped to handle it.
"We have a lot of athletes that love the game," Shaw said. "We want them to continue, we want them to continue playing. We want them to be safe."
