I received a call from Lynda Musgrove, the mother of 16-year-old San Bernardino High School junior track athlete Jermaine Musgrove, earlier today updating Jermaine’s status. Musgrove is still in critical condition at Arrowhead Medical Center at Colton after collapsing during his leg of the 4×400 relay at last Wednesday’s San Andreas League meet at Colton High School.
“He’s doing OK,” Lynda Musgrove said. “He’s opening his eyes and moving his hands a bit. He’s certainly not a vegetable right now. When you tell him to open his eyes, he opens them.”
Lynda said that she isn’t quite sure how far along Jermaine’s awareness is, though stated that Jermaine’s eyes followed his grandfather as his grandfather walked around his room. Jermaine’s overall status and prognosis is still unclear though.
“He’s showing signs, but not enough right now,” Lynda said.
Lynda also made it a point to thank the communities of San Bernardino and the surrounding areas for their support of Jermaine. Besides visitors and get-well cards and posters, several area religious leaders have called for prayers for Jermaine according to Lynda.
Lynda also lauded a note written by Angelina Shelton on the Press-Enterprise’s website. Here is the entry, which is published with Shelton’s consent.
“I witnessed this child go down and my heart sank and left the track meet in tears. He was the same size, frame, and build as my son so it was very profound and emotional for me to see him lying there that way. The only difference was that he was wearing a SB uniform and not a Cajon uniform. While the ambulance was on site on the west side of the track, it took them about 5-6 minutes to get to the other side of the track. During this time the other coaches were giving him CPR. Upon arrival by the ambulance to him, it looked like they appeared to be using a defibrilator machine. As I saw the paramedics doing chest compressions on him (mind you for at least 20 minutes) I just prayed the blood of Jesus over him. The personnel were feverishly working on him and I just really thought about how his parents might not have known that at that moment that they’re baby was down. As a mother, I was hurting for his mother, still am. I prayed to God that she would not have to bury her child while celebrating Mother’s Day. I stopped one of his teammates before getting on the bus and told him to pray for his friend and he replied, “Yeah Jermaine’s a cool dude, we got class together, he’ll be straight.” The drive home was very somber and emotional for me as I just kept praying out loud to myself for his parents, for him, for siblings if he had any. Just to let this boy live. I asked God if he’s an angel that you need right now, then have mercy on his soul and give his parents the courage they’ll need thru their grief. I then asked God if he’s not an angel that you need right now, then give Jermaine the strength to pull thru and go home to his parents. I apologize for writing so much, but I woke up just heartbroken thinking about this child. I just hope that if his parents or family or friends read this that they take comfort in knowing that from one mother to the next your son is in my prayers and I will continue to plead the blood of Jesus over him until he is better. God bless.”
