One day after he collapsed to the ground and began convulsing, Mike Patterson received some troubling news, news that could put his season and NFL career in doubt.
Patterson, who suffered a seizure that lasted four minutes during Wednesday morning’s practice, has been diagnosed with a brain condition that may require surgery, according to Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder.
As of Thursday afternoon, Patterson remained at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, where tests indicated a brain condition called arteriovenous malformation, which is the tangling of blood vessels near the skull. It is usually treated with surgery or radiation.
Burkholder said that Patterson and the Eagles are still evaluating potential options.
“In medicine today, there’s tons of options,” Burkholder said. “It would be foolish to speculate what’s going to happen with Mike. I’m certainly not going to speculate whether Mike will return to football, now, this season, or next season.”
For now, it’s unknown how the condition will affect Patterson’s career long-term.
Burkholder also said Patterson was likely born with AVM and that Wednesday’s seizure had nothing to do with the player’s football activity.
“It just so happened to be at football practice,”?he said. “It could have happened anywhere. It just happened here.”
