School Helps an Exchange Student Try to Rebound : Illness: A Finnish athlete suffers an aneurysm in his head while weightlifting in Los Alamitos. He’s partly paralyzed.

Standing 6 feet, 7 inches tall, 17-year-old Seppo Usva of Finland was a promising prospect to play center on the Los Alamitos High School basketball team this year.

But the Finnish exchange student never got the chance. Just as he was starting his second month at the school, Seppo collapsed at school during a short break between weightlifting.

Now, Seppo lies in a Westminster hospital bed in a semiconscious state, partly paralyzed and unable to speak.

Doctors said he suffered an aneurysm. Apparently, his family did not know that he had a hereditary condition that finally caused a tiny bubble on an artery in his head to burst.

As soon as the aneurysm was discovered, Seppo underwent emergency surgery Oct. 8 and remains in intensive care at Humana Hospital-Westminster. He will be transferred next week to UCLA Medical Center, where doctors will try to repair the damaged artery.

“It could have happened at any time,” said the school’s athletic trainer, Pam Gibbons. “He was just real fortunate that it happened when people were around to take care of him. Otherwise, he could have bled to death.”

Seppo’s parents rushed to Los Alamitos from Finland to be at their son’s side.

Interpreter Jaana Tepponen said: “At first (Seppo’s parents) thought he was not going to survive, that they had to come here fast. But now they think he’s going to be OK.”

“Did Seppo play well?” his father, Jaakko Usva asked basketball coach Steve Brooks during a visit to the school last week.

“Yes, he was greatly improving and making tremendous strides,” the coach responded. “He kept telling me that in Finland, they play the slow-down, very patterned offense, and we play an up-tempo game, a fast-breaking style.”

Wearing a lapel pin of the flags of Finland and the United States, Seppo’s mother, Heidi, spoke of the friendship and warmth extended their family by the community.

“We could not expect all this friendliness from the host family and school,” the father added.

Although their medical insurance is expected to pick up most of the hospital costs, the high school has established a “Seppo Usva Fund” to help the parents pay for their transportation and other expenses while in the United States.

About $800 has been raised so far, Brooks said, but school officials are hoping that donations reach at least $3,000.

“He’s a super kid,” the coach said. “You knew he came from a great family and a caring family.”

Paul Waechter, whose family is acting as hosts for Seppo during his stay, described the teen’s unlimited appetite for food and living.

“He came home from school the first day, threw up his hands and said, ‘A thousand new words!’ ” Waechter said.

The Usvas left their son’s bedside last week and visited the school, meeting some of the friends Seppo had written about in letters to his parents.

“Seppo likes you,” the father told members of the basketball squad, as he tried to speak English. Then, through the interpreter, he added, “Seppo would write home and say ‘It’s all fun guys, and we are having a lot of fun.’ ”

The Usvas took photographs of the freshman-through-senior basketball players, then posed with the coach, the trainer, Principal Carol Hart and members of the varsity squad that played more closely with Seppo.

One by one, the classmates shook hands with the Usvas and wished Seppo well.

“He was a really hard worker,” student Geoff Graham said.

Mike Day, another basketball player, added: “Seppo was really a great, great guy. We wish him the best of luck.”

Five of the students had waited at the hospital until 1 a.m. the night of Seppo’s surgery, wanting to make sure he had survived.

The coach said they have not seen him yet because the teen-ager is not allowed visitors while in the intensive care unit.

It is still too soon to tell how long the recovery process will be, the Usvas said. But if the procedure goes well next week, Seppo will probably be sent to a rehabilitation clinic in Long Beach before returning home to Finland.

But the friendships will not be forgotten.

“Depending on how long it takes, if he wants to come back here, he can come,” his father said.