Millwood HS Girl, 15, In Coma After Collapsing Before Basketball Game

A 15-year-old girl is in a coma Thursday night after passing out before a high school basketball game.

Her family says she told her coach she couldn't breathe, but she didn't get help until it was too late.

Karisma Taylor is in critical condition at OU Medical Center. She is a student at Millwood High School. Her family says she has asthma. But when she had trouble breathing, the coaches didn't take her health issues seriously enough. Now Taylor lays in a hospital bed connected to life support.

"She's a good sister. She was real quiet," said Taylor's brother, Santonio Davis.

According to Karisma's family, she was warming up for a basketball game at Millwood High School on Monday night when she told her coach she couldn't breathe.

"She went to the coach and she was like ‘I can't breathe. I'm not and I don't feel good.' They sent her outside to get air," said Karisma's aunt Alfreda Smith.

Outside on the sidewalk, Smith says Karisma passed out.

"She's laying there unconscious and her friends are trying to help her when there should be an adult," said Smith.

Her friends would run inside to try and get help but according to Karisma's family more than 10 minutes would pass before the school would call for help and Paramedics would arrive. An EMSA spokesperson says she was in full arrest when they arrived on the scene.

"Precious seconds mean everything. If they could have got to her at least six, seven minutes sooner, she may be with us, talking now," said Smith.

Instead Karisma lays in the hospital bed, almost completely brain dead. Doctors say there is no hope that she will ever wake up.

Millwood superintendent Dr. Gloria Griffin says because this incident is under investigation they can't share many details. They are asking for everyone however to pray for her family.