Friends and family gathered at Esperanza High School in Anaheim on Thursday to pray for a student who remained unconscious in the hospital after suffering from cardiac arrest earlier in the week.
Morgan Wilson, who has a 4.2 GPA and is one of the school’s varsity tennis captains, collapsed about 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to Judith Tarbell, the school’s women’s tennis booster club president.
Rescue crews were able to get Wilson’s heart started again after using a defibrillator, however, Wilson has not regained consciousness since the incident, Tarbell stated in an email.
“She is fighting for her life,” Tarbell wrote.
Tarbell’s daughter was standing next to Wilson when the teen collapsed.
Wilson was at UC Irvine Medical Center in critical condition, the Orange County Register reported, citing a track coach at Esperanza High.
Wilson, 17, was getting ready for a private tennis lesson with a warmup run when she collapsed at an Anaheim park, the newspaper reported.
Wilson’s fellow students gathered Thursday on the tennis courts of the high school to hold a prayer vigil for her.
Her parents said through Tarbell that they were not ready to speak about their daughter.
Under the hashtag #prayforMorgan, friends and fellow students voiced their support for Wilson on Twitter.
“Don’t understand how something like this could happen to one of the nicest, most hardworking people I know,” one tweet stated. “Love you, Morgan.”
Wilson always has a positive attitude when faced with a challenge on the tennis court, said Alexa Lanning, a recent Esperanza graduate who played with Wilson.
“I think that she can pull through this one too,” Lanning said. “She’s a fighter and she’ll do it.”
Lanning organized the “group prayer” for Wilson on the courts Thursday.
“She’s in the hospital and she really needs our prayers more than anything,” Lanning said.
Esperanza, a high-achieving public school with a strong athletic program, serves students from Yorba Linda, Anaheim, and Placentia, according to the school’s website.
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