Texas offensive lineman Trevor Goosby is turning a personal health battle into a cause.
The senior tackle hosted a football camp for kids Wednesday night at Hyde Park High School, with the event benefiting the Children’s Heart Foundation. Goosby said he plans to match the proceeds, directing the money to research on childhood heart disease.
For Goosby, the effort is personal. As a teenager, he was diagnosed with an Atrial Septal Defect, or ASD, a congenital heart defect that increases blood flow through the lungs and can lead to fatigue, shortness of breath and an irregular heartbeat. He had open-heart surgery at 16.
Goosby said the diagnosis explained something that had puzzled coaches when he was younger: he would wear down quickly during wind sprints on the basketball court. He had been doing the same conditioning work as everyone else, but the problem was medical, not a matter of effort.
"It just means everything," Goosby said. "Just because of, I guess I would say, how successful I've been -- I'm a humble guy, so I don't like to talk about it too much. But, just being able to use my platform for good and use my platform to bring awareness to things like this, stuff that isn't talked about as much."
He said he worked through his agent to connect with the Children’s Heart Foundation and set up the event. Giving back to an organization that helps children facing the same kind of diagnosis was something he had wanted to do for a long time, he said. He also wants kids born with heart defects to see him and understand they are not alone.
The surgery itself remains a vivid memory. Goosby said he still remembers the drive to the hospital that morning and how scared he felt, even with his mother trying to calm him down.
"Just going through that kind of adversity, it kind of just changed who I was as a person," Goosby said. "Also, just physically, I used to be super winded."
Terry Morrow, the president and CEO of the Children’s Heart Foundation, said during the event that a child is born with a congenital heart defect every 15 minutes. He said the organization uses a medical advisory council each year to help choose the most promising research, and that is where its funding goes.
Since the foundation was created in 1996, it has invested more than $21 million in research for congenital heart defects. Morrow said efforts like Goosby’s matter because federal funding for this research is not enough, and because awareness from a player with Goosby’s profile can make a difference.
"It's kind of one of those that's hiding in plain sight," Morrow said. "Even Trevor, we were talking to him a little bit ago, and he was like, 'I'll show my scar for the kids.'
Man, please do. Because it hides.
Someone like him, a perfect athletic specimen, and the truth is, he's getting to share his platform to say, 'Hey, something happened to me.'"
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