When Jakob Beacock was first admitted to hospital, his family had no way of knowing the 13-year-old would never see his home again.
The Waterloo teen was taken to hospital last week with flu-like symptoms.
Last Tuesday, while in hospital, his appendix ruptured.
An operation was scheduled for the next morning, but as it was underway, Beacock suffered cardiac arrest.
He was airlifted to a hospital in Hamilton, but never made it out of unconsciousness or off of life support, and died Tuesday morning.
Rob Fleming, who coached Beacock on the Waterloo Ice Wolves minor bantam team, says the whole team is “shocked” by the death.
“We had so much hope that his brain activity would come back, and that he would pull through this,” he says.
Grief counsellors have been brought in for Beacock’s teammates and their families, and Fleming says the team is also looking at holding an event to celebrate his life – which, between snowboarding, skateboarding and BMX riding, was active even away from the rink.
“We’re hoping that some of Jakob can be passed along to help others,” says Fleming.
Last Sunday, Beacock’s teammates raised $1,400 for his family by collecting donations at an exhibition hockey game.
