Duke softball coach puts things in perspective during husband’s health emergency
Oklahoma captured its third consecutive softball national championship Thursday night in Oklahoma City — some 1,043 miles away from her home in Cary — further driving home the current upheaval in Duke softball coach Marissa Young’s life.
Three days after the Blue Devils’ season ended in a super regional loss for the second year in a row, Young’s husband was rushed into emergency heart surgery at Duke University Hospital.
James Lamar has undergone numerous follow-up procedures since then as he fights to survive. He’s still under sedation and has a breathing tube installed.
So, while the Sooners were rallying to beat Florida State, 3-1, to win the Women’s College World Series, Young was at her husband’s bedside, missing out on what would have been a shared experience.
“The final of the World Series,” Young wrote in a message posted on social media Friday morning, “a game that James and I no doubt would have been watching together and bantering back and forth the whole time. Not having that with him is one of the many things I miss doing with him.”
She then posted an emoji for a broken heart.
A youth softball coach himself, Lamar had emergency heart surgery on May 30. The family has not yet revealed the exact nature of his ailment, but Young’s social media posts indicate he’s had at least four other surgeries since then.
On May 31, Young wrote, “I am trying hard not to ask why or how this would happen to someone who gives and cares so much for others! James had emergency heart surgery last night and is on life support fighting for his life! We know that he is in God’s hands and pray for recovery.”
The Duke community, and the greater softball community, has responded to the family’s health emergency with a GoFundMe initiative that’s raised $14,838 as of Friday.
Young and Lamar are the parents of four children. The eldest, Braylon, is heading to Miami this fall as a walk-on linebacker with the Hurricanes following a standout prep career at Cary’s Panther Creek High School.
Lamar has suffered significant heart trauma, Young said on social media, and is dealing with related liver and kidney issues, as well.
In her Friday update, Young said her husband’s medical team had hoped to remove the breathing tube, allowing him to breath on his own so they could ease the sedation. He wasn’t well enough for that to occur, but Young said “stability in his condition is absolutely something to celebrate.”
“We continue to have full faith that James will be healed, in God’s perfect timing, not mine,” she said. “We have a very long road ahead of us, but we pray for the next milestone of removing his breathing tube.”