NM student dies after falling from basketball hoop

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An Albuquerque middle school student who fell from a basketball hoop while decorating for graduation has died.

KOAT-TV reports that 12-year-old Andres Jovan Martinez died Sunday from injuries he sustained while setting up for the eighth-grade graduation last week at Washington Middle School.

School officials told the Albuquerque Journal the sixth grader was getting the gym ready with his choir class when he ran from a 4-foot stage and launched himself toward a basketball hoop and lost his grip on the rim and fell, suffering severe head injuries.

His mother, Emma Martinez, told KOAT-TV that when she first got the call, she thought he had a minor injury such as a broken arm. But he never woke up.

She says the boys' organs were donated and helped save six people.