A teen football player passed away from an allergic reaction to ant bites that he got during a game.
"He was standing there on the sidelines and just started yelling 'Ants! Ants!" Lorette Williams, director of communications for the Texas school district, told the New York Daily News.
The 13-year-old boy, Cameron Espinosa, fell unconscious twice before an ambulance rushed to the scene.
The middle school football player was pronounced dead on Monday after spending five days in the intensive care unit of Driscoll Children's Hospital. He had been placed in a medically-induced coma to combat brain swelling before he passed away, the Daily Mail reported.
"CCISD is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of our very own Haas Middle School students. We would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of this student. The District will do all we can in support of the student's family and the entire Haas school community during this sad time. Additional grief counseling support will be provided to Haas students and staff as needed. All Haas MS athletic and campus extracurricular events will be cancelled for the remainder of the week," the Corpus Christi Independent School District wrote on their Facebook page.
Espinosa was huddled with his teammates during half-time when he first noticed the ants, the Daily Mail reported via KZTV.
A coach attempted to squirt the ants off the boy's leg with a water bottle. When Espinosa lost consciousness the coach called 911 and went to find a defibrillator.
Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic said the insects were most likely fire ants. School officials said no more athletic activities will take place on the field until it has been treated for ants.
Josephine Limon, Espinoza's mother, said "more trained personnel" or access to an EpiPen could have saved her son's life, KZTV reported
