A West Virginia family is reeling after their 8-year-old son died while playing soccer.
According to WSAZ, Caleb Ray just finished up the first practice of the season in the Ranger area of Lincoln County.
“It was just a normal day,” said mom Kristy Ray. “I have video of him practicing as goalie probably 10 minutes before his heart stopped and he’s jumping up and down.”
The boy was playing along with his friends when he told his Father that he didn’t feel well and said he couldn’t see.
“He fell and started convulsing a little bit. I yelled over there to call an ambulance and everybody came running over and Kristy and I performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived,” Caleb’s father, Ryan Ray, said.
Paramedics arrived at the scene and attempted to revive the boy, but efforts proved ineffective and he was pronounced dead.
Kristy Ray said that her son had never showed any signs of medical issues before, outside of a heart murmur in his infancy and a small case of asthma.
“You don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” she said.
The Ray family has received many donations in the days following their son’s death. They hope to use that money to make sure that defibrillators are available near athletic fields. One wasn’t available the day Caleb died.
“The fact that he was taken from us so soon, it cannot be for nothing,” said Kristy Ray. “Something good has to come from this, and the type of child he was, he would want us to do this.”
The heartbroken Mom said that she has regrets about her last words to her son.
“I don’t know what my last words were to him. I think I hollered, ‘Great job Caleb!’ because he blocked a ball. You just wish you could have said, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you,'” she said.
An obituary for Ray reads: “He possessed a kind, compassionate, and loving soul, and wanted to help everyone in need. He was intelligent, inquisitive, fun-loving, and loved to listen and sing to music. He never met a stranger and was loved by all…Caleb truly loved his friends and family members. He could always be found smiling and striking up a conversation at the local grocery store on his bicycle, or in his 2nd grade classroom. He wanted to be a doctor or an archaeologist when he grew up.”
Those wishing to support the Ray family may send donations to PO Box 292 Ranger, WV 25557.