White Sox reliever Danny Farquhar has another surgery to relieve swelling

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Hector Santiago hugs Chris Volstad as he carries the jersey of Danny Farquhar to the White Sox’ bullpen before the game Sunday against the Astros at Guaranteed Rate Field. | David Banks/Getty Images

This isn’t supposed to happen, not to a professional athlete, not to one of the nicest guys and kindest souls you’ll ever want to meet, not to a 31-year-old husband with three young children.

One moment, Danny Farquhar is a major-league pitcher, walking off the mound into the White Sox’ dugout.

The next, he’s vomiting, collapsing, rushed by ambulance to the hospital, fighting for his life.

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Farquhar suffered a brain aneurysm Friday night during the Sox’ game against the Astros, the first professional athlete believed to endure the life-threatening event during competition. He underwent another complicated procedure Saturday night to relieve swelling around the brain and remained Sunday in the intensive-care unit at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He’s in critical but stable condition.

“He’s a fighter, and he’s in the fight of his life right now,’’ Sox vice president Ken Williams said.  “They had to do another surgery, cracking his skull open and putting a clamp on it. My God.

“This certainly shows the fragility of life and how we take every day for granted. And it can change in a heartbeat. Literally.

“His wife and mother were at the game that night, and by the time they got to the clubhouse, he was already in an ambulance heading to the hospital. Can you imagine what they went through and are still going through?’’

Farquhar will remain in the hospital and be closely monitored by neurosurgeons for at least the next three weeks. His family is by his side now, said Sohail Shahpar, Farquhar’s longtime agent and close friend, calling them shaken but cautiously optimistic.

“You just can’t imagine this happening,’’ Shahpar said, “not to a baseball player in the middle of the game. As a baseball player, you have Tommy John surgery, guys blowing out their arms or knees. Guys taking line drives off their body or even head. But this?”

Former All-Star first baseman John Olerud once had a brain aneurysm in college at Washington State, but he had a 17-year career, playing with a batting helmet in the field to protect his skull. Veteran lefty Kent Mercker suffered a cerebral hemorrhage during a game in 2000 with the Anaheim Angels, but rapid medical attention prevented the bleeding on his brain from developing into an aneurysm.

Farquhar might never play baseball again, but as long as he can walk out of that hospital, be with his wife, Alexandria, who was his high school sweetheart, and watch his kids, Madison, Landon and Liam, aged from 6 years to 7 months, that’s all that matters.

“Look, I can’t speak on his career,’’ said Athletics catcher Jonathan Lucroy, Farquhar’s college teammate from Louisiana-Lafayette, “but we’re all just hoping he can have a happy, productive life for his kids. I can’t even imagine having kids of your own and this happening. It’s just devastating.

“Thank God the trainers and medical staff were right there when it happened. That saved his life. Can you imagine if he were back in his hotel room and this happened?’’

It was the strangest day of Lucroy’s life. It began with the news of Farquhar’s aneurysm via email from friends and teammates and ended with Lucroy catching Sean Manaea’s no-hitter against the Red Sox, the first he has caught.

“Here’s a guy I’ve known for 11 years, and know his wife and oldest child, and wake up to the news he’s hanging on for dear life,’’ Lucroy said, “and end the day celebrating a no-hitter. It was crazy. I was just sitting by myself at my locker not knowing how I was supposed to feel.’’

Yet, everyone who knows Farquhar knows he’s a fighter. He’s a 5-9 bulldog who was the 309th pick in the 2008 draft, made his major-league debut three years later and has since bounced in and out of six organizations. He was promoted and demoted seven times by the Rays one summer and saved 16 games for the Mariners in another.

A decade in this game creates connections that span the continent, some even preceding his time as a pro.

“He was always such a great athlete with a good arm and had to reinvent himself at times through his career,’’ said Diamondbacks catcher Alex Avila, who grew up playing Little League and high school baseball with Farquhar in Pembroke Pines, Florida. “He played shortstop, center field, pitched and batted leadoff for us. Really, he’s one of those kids that was really good at everything.’’

Said former Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik, who acquired Farquhar in the Ichiro Suzuki trade with the Yankees on July 23, 2012: “My God, could he hit a golf ball. Holy smokes! He was just one of those classic overachievers, and a good young man with guts and a big heart. He’s always the kind of guy everyone pulled for.

“And now to hear this.’’

In time, perhaps doctors will be able to diagnose what happened. Then again, maybe we’ll never know. It doesn’t really matter. All we know is that Farquhar is alive and fighting every moment.

“I’m still in shock about it,’’ Avila said, “thinking about his wife and kids and what their family must be going through. It scares you. This is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s very smart, very witty with a great sense of humor.

“He’s just such a very, very nice guy almost to the point that it’s hard to imagine something like this happening to someone like Danny, with such a good heart.’’

The Sox said he’ll be in their hearts and prayers and they’ll think of him every time they step onto the field. They hung his jersey in the bullpen, and many have written his No. 43 and initials on the side of their baseball caps. The prayers will continue, they say, until he walks out of the hospital and they can see that goofy smile again.

Farquhar’s former teammates remember him making a silly face on photo day years ago, only for it to wind up as the picture used for his baseball card. His Sox teammates laugh at his frustration this past year trying to figure out how to use Instagram. And everyone has marveled at him talking about his family, bringing them on as many trips as possible, and spending his day off in Manhattan two years ago at the American Girl store buying dolls for Madison.

“He’s been on so many teams you’d think that Danny would have trouble with somebody, but everyone loves him,’’ Shahpar said. “He’s that guy everyone likes to be around. It’s not that he’s the life of a party or has this big personality. He’s just the type of person that’s like family. A genuinely good guy.

“It’s unfortunate that life doesn’t pick and choose who this can happen to based on what kind of person you are.’’

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