By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 21:09:24 | Updated at 2024-11-23 05:02:02
1 week ago
A 14-year-old boy with dreams of becoming a Major League Baseball player died in the Dominican Republic after his trainer allegedly injected him with steroids.
Ismael Ureña had been training at the Yordy Cabrera Baseball Academy and was forced to leave the program after he began to experience complications from boldenone, the Diario Libre newspaper reported on Thursday.
This steroid is normally used on horses to improve their performance.
Ureña had complained to his older brother that he couldn't feel his legs. The color on the whites of his eyes turned yellow and the color tone of his urine was as red as blood.
His mother, Iris Pérez, told the outlet that pleaded with her son to stop training at the academy and then took him to a local doctor's office, where blood tests confirmed that he had been injected with steroids.
Ureña spent several days in a hospital bed before he died in August.
Pérez revealed that her two other sons had also trained at Yordy Cabrera Baseball Academy and were also allegedly injected with steroids.
The two boys were diagnosed with tachycardia, a condition that causes the heart rate to beat faster than normal and vision problems.
Ismael Ureña, a 14-year-old baseball prospect, died in August after he allegedly was injected with boldenone, which is normally applied to horses to improve their performance, while training at the Yordy Cabrera Baseball Academy
A team of five lawyers associated with the non-profit Family Without Violence Foundation is representing the family and appeared before the Santo Domingo Este prosecutor's office on Tuesday to press charges against Yordy Cabrera.
The attorneys are seeking a coercive measure and requesting that Cabrera be arrested and placed in pretrial detention while the case is investigated.
'I am here because I want justice, because they killed my son, and I want justice for my son,' Ureña's father, Inoel, told a judge.
'They were injecting him with things that I did not tell them to inject into my son, and that is why I want justice.'
Cabrera was drafted the Oakland Athletics in the second round of the MLB 2010 draft.
He spent parts of eight minor league seasons with the Athletics, Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers.
DailyMail.com reached out to Cabrera for comment.
Baldenone, according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, was created for veterinary use but remains a popular performance-enhancing drug among athletes.
Relatives gather to hear the announcement of Ureña's attorneys' request to place Cabrera in pretrial detention while the case is investigated
The Food and Drug Administration prohibits its use in humans, although athletes have been obtaining it illegally to gain muscle mass and strength.
'Boldenone causes decreased testosterone production in men,' the United States Anti-Doping Agency explains on its site.
'In animal studies, boldenone has led to significant harm to the reproductive system and fertility of males, including decreased size of the testes, lower sperm count, and lower sperm mobility.
'In addition, boldenone is classified as a probable human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.'
