BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Officials say a basketball player at a West Virginia college who died had just finished a pickup game when he collapsed.
Bluefield State College Athletic Director John Lewis tells news outlets that 24-year-old Timeyin Amatosero-Keke (tih-MAYN’ ah-mah-toe-SEHR’-oh-KE’-KE’) died Monday night.
Lewis says an athletic trainer told him Amatosero-Keke, of Lagos, Nigeria, was packing up to leave a pickup game session at a high school when he collapsed.
Lewis says Amatosero-Keke was taken to a hospital and died. His cause of death is unclear.
University of Maine freshman football player Darius Minor of Locust Grove, Va., collapsed and died during a July 24 workout with his football classmates on Morse Field.
The Maine medical examiner’s office on Aug. 14 released the results of Minor’s autopsy. It said the 18-year-old Minor died of, “ acute aortic dissection with cardiac tamponade, with hypertensive cardiovascular disease as a contributing factor.”
Aortic dissection is a “relatively uncommon” and “serious” heart condition that occurs when the inner layer of a large blood vessel near the heart — the aorta — tears, according to the Mayo Clinic. The tear causes blood to surge through the aorta’s additional layers, which can be fatal if the blood ruptures through the outermost layer, the medical research center says.
UMaine was scheduled to have a moment of silence for Minor prior to the kickoff of Thursday night’s football season opener against New Hampshire at Alfond Stadium in Orono.
Amatosero-Keke was a transfer student majoring in civil engineering and technology at Bluefield State College. This was his second year at Bluefield State.
College President Marsha Krotseng said a vigil was held Tuesday. Krotseng says counseling is available this week for students, faculty and staff.