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High School Cheerleader Collapses During Football Game and Dies

Oct. 2, 2011 2:00pm Madeleine Morgenstern

High School Cheerleader Angela Gettis Collapses During Los Angeles Football Game and Dies

Angela Gettis, a 16-year-old cheerleader, died early Saturday after collapsing during a high school football game in Los Angeles. (Photo credit: KABC-TV)

A high school cheerleader in Los Angeles died early Saturday, hours after collapsing on the sideline during a football game.

Angela Gettis, a 16-year-old sophomore, was briefly revived after passing out on the field Friday night, but died three hours later in the hospital.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District told local ABC affiliate KABC-TV that Gettis had an apparent cardiac arrest.

Gettis was a top student and planned to go to college to study forensic science. Los Angeles school district Superintendent John Deasy said Saturday the girl was “a wonderful young lady. It is a catastrophic loss for the school and for the community. My heart goes out to her family.”

Friends and mourners quickly took to Facebook to remember Gettis.

“I just want people to remember the heart she had. She was very kind,” Angela Kirkindoff, Gettis’ aunt, told KABC.

A witness, Cameron Bonner, told City News Service the Washington Prep squad the game was tied in the fourth quarter when the cheerleader collapsed. Play was stopped and coaches and trainers ran to help the girl.

“They had just tied the game up, and the cheerleaders were pumped up,” Bonner said. She appeared “to just pass out,” he said.

Bystanders performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

“All of her friends were in a circle crying,” Bonner said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Comments (98)

Dean Toadblatt
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:54pm
She must have had some pre-existing condition. Very sad for her family! Terrible!!!
May God comfort her family and friends.

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- Falsegods
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 11:53pm
  Angela is a little angel, may God bless her. I wonder if she recently had a vaccine.
  
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- SurhanSurhan
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 9:10am
  Are you a doctor, do you play one on TV? Leave the explanation to the experts!
  
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- Gates
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 6:16pm
  “She must have had some pre-existing condition.”
  
  Of course she did! But I’ll bet nobody knew about it. Shame on her parents AND her doctors!
  
  Report this comment
football lady
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:51pm
Condolences to the family of this beautiful young girl.

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Cat
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:49pm
Prayers for her and her family
Rest in peace sweetie

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- Virgil_Lance
  Posted on October 5, 2011 at 12:45am
  Ditto – how heartbreaking – my prayers as well.
  
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FedUpAlready
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:36pm
My sincere condolences to the family and friends, of this young women. May God grant you
peace and comfort, during this tragic time. May the comfort of knowing you will see her again,
give you the strength to get through. God Bless

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KSherrell
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:34pm
Wow, prayers for her family, a beautiful young lady.

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- pattybbb1
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 11:17pm
  Agreed. Very sad.
  
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quicker
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:33pm
My heart goes out to this family.May God and all his mercy take this precious child in his armsand comfort the family in their time of grief.

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angelcat
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:32pm
I know what it is tolose a child, and my heart hurts for the family of this girl. May they find comfort from God, their family and friends as they grapple with this great loss.

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- randy
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:49pm
  God Bless you also Angelcat
  
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- Ookspay
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 4:32pm
  Diito…
  
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- Faith1029
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 4:40pm
  So sorry for you also. I cannot imagine the grief one must feel from losing a child. May God wrap His loving arms around you, and the family of this little girl, and give you peace.
  
  Report this comment
- coindexter
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 8:08pm
  prayers to her family and all who knew and loved her…it seems the world needs more people like her. a shame to lose a bright young lady.
  
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- no1jyd
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 9:55pm
  Sorry for your loss as well as this families. May God be withe you all. This is some thing I thought may bring you some comfort. And if anyone kows how to get this to this girls family please do.
  http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/index.php?page=Poem/Poem.php
  
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CatB
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:31pm
Rest in Peace … prayers going out to her family at this sad time.

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Countrygirl1362
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:23pm
How horrible. Prayers for her family and friends.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:27pm
  Same here.
  
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Victoria1555
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:20pm
My heart goes out to her family, but something was wrong for this to happen at such a young age. I’m super into organics and so many are deficient in nutrients. God Bless! It doesn’t just happen!!

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- The Third Archon
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:40pm
  America has a population of roughly 330 million–it’s bound to have some medical oddities eventually. And who knows, maybe she had a preexisting condition?
  
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- corbecket
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 12:12am
  It absolutely “just happens”, and it happens all the time. I haven’t seen an autopsy report on this young lady, but there are cardiac conductive defects that can kill a kid dead.
  
  I’m speaking from experience here, as our daughter was diagnosed at the age of seven with WPW (Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome). It was a lucky catch, by an excellent pediatrician. He caught it with his stethoscope. A couple of trips to a pediatric cardiologist, and wiring her up to a monitor for a week (true), and we caught an episode where her heart rate zoomed up to 240 beats per minute.
  
  At the age of seven, it’s not usuallly fatal, but past the age of ten, it can become deadly. A couple of hours on the table, with two of the state’s best cardiologists, and they were able to ablate the offending extra bundle of nerves that were causing the short circuit in her heart. She had seven catheters in her heart at once in order to work their magic, but they did the job. About six seconds of rf energy, in exactly the right spot, and her EKG was normal for the first time in her life. We framed the strip. Pretty magical, that.
  
  WPW happens to one in 1,500 people, and they generally have it from birth. The ones that die are usually undiagnosed and, like a bomb ticking away, it kills quite a number every year without notice.
  
  Our daughter’s a cheerleader as well. I count her lucky.
  
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WeMustNeverForget
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:17pm
I feel for the family’s loss. So sad. Hope they find out what caused the cardiac arrest.

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Look4DBigPicture
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:17pm
God bless her, her family and her friends.

Why does this keep happening to young athletes in our country? Something somewhere is terribly wrong and needs to be corrected.

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Talmid of Yeshua
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:15pm
This is very sad. When teens die of cardiac arrest, their life is cut so short, it really hits home that any of us can go at any moment. There are always stories of kids collapsing and dying during sporting events. Could be a defective heart, could be drugs, could be a blood clot, but whatever the cause, it is very sad.

But it is God’s will. We all must die, for the wages of sin is death, and we all are guilty.

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- KevStutzCanDo
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:37pm
  Talmid of Yeshua,You are wrong! Dont blame God for death.
  Hebrews 2:14 b
  …that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
  
  People have this habbit of saying every thing that happens is “God’s will”.
  Jesus our Christ came that we might have LIFE….The theif ( one of the names for the Devil) comes for nothing more than to steal, KILL, and destroy.
  ( John 10:10)
  
  Report this comment
- NHBuckeye
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 4:46pm
  KevStutzCanDo – Ever hear of the Great Flood? How about the two sons of Aaron who offered profane fire and were instantly vaporized by God? How about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the Romans? God is sovereign over all things, even Satan and death.
  
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- Talmid of Yeshua
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 1:05am
  Sorry, I am not wrong. It is God’s will. In case you don’t understand… even Satan exists because it is God’s will.
  
  Report this comment
- KevStutzCanDo
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 9:18am
  It appears the Blaze has selective editing. I gave a clear explanation of “Idiom of Permission” Explaining how the Bible appears to attribute bad things to God. But it didn’t get posted.
  
  If you’re really interested, here’s a link to a great explanation:
  
  http://www.picturesofsilver.com/appendix/idiomperm.htm
  
  Report this comment
- KevStutzCanDo
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 9:53am
  You are absolutely correct that God is ALL powerful and sovereign over ALL and I’m thankful for that.
  
  But God has limited Himself to His word.
  
  A wonderful example of this is Free will.
  
  1 Timothy 2:4 states that it is God’s will for all men to be saved and come into a full knowledge of his will. Now we know that not all men are or were saved nor have they come into a full knowledge of the truth. So there’s an example of how God’s will doesn’t come to pass.
  
  That poor girl had her life taken away from her against God’s will. It was the work of the evil one, NOT GOD. I hope you can understand that.
  
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nappy
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:12pm
My condolences to her family. Truly terrible.

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SHASTADIANE1
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 3:08pm
I thought I could make it through one day without crying over some story. My heart and prayers go out for her family and friends. May God have mercy on her and give her family peace. So sad. Especially when you see all these idiots our protesting for what? They don’t even know. So bad when a young and wonderful person is struck down.

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YepImaConservative
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:53pm
A shame, truly a shame. She is sitting at the right hand of God as are all children who he takes from us too soon and for reasons only known to him.

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olddog
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:49pm
God Bless her and family, I am so sorry.

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Mike777
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:43pm
God bless her and her family.

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Netsurfer2
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:33pm
What did she die of ? What created the cardiac arrest ?

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- lacool
  Posted on October 2, 2011 at 5:21pm
  I would say hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The leading cause of these kinds of tragic deaths in young athletes
  
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- ccfonten
  Posted on October 3, 2011 at 11:22am
  Lacool: you are most likely correct. As an RN who has worked with these people, it is devastating to the family. If this turns out to be the case, I sincerely hope everyone in her family gets checked out. It is genetic.
  May God have mercy on this angel and give peace out of grief for her family.
  
  Report this comment
SERUM
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:29pm
God bless this family… may they find some comfort in this time of tragedy.

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Carol Ingian
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:23pm
I am very sorry for her family and friends.

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heavyduty
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:21pm
So sorry to hear that this young girl lost her life. But she was doing what she loved. Praying for the parents.

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randy
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:19pm
That’s terrible. God bless her and her family….

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netmail
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:10pm
Poor baby…this is just terrible. I know many prayers are out for her family, friends and school.

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Secessionista
Posted on October 2, 2011 at 2:08pm
How sad.

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