Less than one week after the death of North Carolina middle schooler Caden Sorrell, his parents want the community to remember their son for who he truly was.
An estimated 500 people showed up at Northwest Guilford High School in Greensboro on Wednesday for a celebration of life as family urged others to “live like Caden.”
“I knew he touched people, but I didn’t know it was to that extent,” Sorrell’s mother, Laura, told USA Today.
Sorrell, a 13-year-old student at Northwest Middle School, collapsed at the beginning of his football practice on Aug. 28 and went into cardiac arrest by the time his parents arrived on the scene, Laura said.
He was transported to a local hospital and put on life support for two days. Care included extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and a heart pump, but it wasn’t enough to save Sorrell.
“They refused to give up. They were going to keep trying to treat him like he was their own,” Laura said. “Then the tests came back; it was Saturday afternoon, and they said he didn’t have brain activity.”
Laura and her husband then faced one of the hardest decisions they’ll ever have to make.
“I know how Caden was and each of my kids came to me separately and told me that they knew he did not want to be like that,” Laura said. “He wouldn’t want to be like that. So his dad and I got together and decided we didn’t want to put them or him through that anymore.
“Even though we wanted to be selfish and keep him with us, we knew that was the right thing to do.”
Caden’s parents spent the night with him in the hospital before he was pronounced dead on Sunday. The two of them barely slept, Laura said: “It was like every minute, you want to keep that last minute with you.”
The Sorrells have now turned their attention to helping Caden’s four surviving siblings. According to a GoFundMe page set up for the family, doctors believe Caden’s cardiac arrest may have been caused by an underlying genetic condition.
Each of his siblings are set to undergo genetic testing to identify the condition.
“We all can’t help but wonder, ‘If Caden had (been tested), would we have known?’” Caden’s oldest sister, Vanessa, said.
The family is now using its tragedy to try to save other kids from the same fate. Laura urges other parents to have their children tested for cardiac issues that could surface at any time.
“If they have any family history of cardiac arrest, have them checked,” Laura said. “Or even if they don’t have any history, have them checked. Genetic testing, EKG’s, especially before [playing] sports.”
“That’s what he would want,” Laura and Vanessa said.
