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By Alexa Ashwell

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —

A family has made it their mission to raise awareness about a rare heart defect that led to the sudden death of their 12-year-old son.

Gabriel Jacobs collapsed in his family’s driveway while playing basketball with his dad and three brothers in Concord this past April.

On Thursday, his family opened up to Channel 9 about his death and talked about an upcoming 5K in his honor.

“I think about it every day,” Frank Jacobs Jr., Gabriel’s brother, said.  “When you lose your brother, thoughts go through your head. I wonder what I could have done to save him. What I could have done to stop it.”

Doctors determined Gabriel Jacobs had gone into cardiac arrest due to an unknown heart defect called anomalous left coronary artery.  This is where the left artery emerges from the wrong place in the aorta and the opening is much smaller.

At the hospital, Kim Jacobs said she was stunned when she learned about the defect and even offered doctors her own heart in hopes of saving her son’s life.

“Just take my heart and put it into him, if possible,” she told Channel 9.

Doctors said that wouldn’t be possible, and the 5 foot, 10 inch tall child, who excelled on the football field and in classroom and had dreams of one day becoming a pastor like his father, died.

“My heart was beyond broken,” Kim Jacobs said.

That heartache resurfaced last month when the family learned of O’Maurey Chamber’s death.

The 10-year-old collapsed and died while at a Pee-Wee football league practice in Charlotte in September. Doctors determined he, too, had the same heart defect as Gabriel Jacobs, and his family was also unaware of it.

Gabriel Jacob’s family spoke during a candlelight vigil at Marshall Park for Chambers and hopes to reach even more people in the future to raise awareness about the defect.

Cardiologists told Channel 9 the defect is very rare and cannot be detected through a routine physical or even an EKG. Some doctors recommend watching for symptoms similar to that of a heart attack.

“Go get an ultrasound done,” Kim Jacobs said. “Really force the issue, because a physical will not detect what’s going on in your child’s heart, and it can change a child’s life forever.”

Frank and Kim Jacobs formed Gabe’s Heart Foundation following Gabriel’s death.

The foundation is hosting a 5K Run/Walk on Nov. 21 in Concord.

A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help raise funds for the foundation.

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