Karl-Anthony Towns mother in medically induced coma due to COVID-19

Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Karl-Anthony Towns announced on Tuesday night that his mother, Jacqueline Cruz, has been placed in a medically induced coma due to complications from COVID-19.

Sharing my story in the hopes that everyone stays at home! We need more equipment and we need to help those medical personnel on the front lines. Thank you to the medical staff who are helping my mom. You are all the true heroes! Praying for all of us at this difficult time.

A post shared by Karl-Anthony Towns (@karltowns) on Mar 24, 2020 at 9:48pm PDT

Towns posted a video to his Instagram account and said his parents weren't feeling well last week and he encouraged them to seek medical attention. When they did, it was revealed they both were confirmed cases of COVID-19 and were hospitalized. While his father made a recovery enough to be discharged to self-quarantine, Towns' mother was kept. She had a temperature of 103 degrees that wouldn't go down without medicine. After initially thinking she may have turned a corner in her recovery, things went sideways and her breathing worsened to the point being placed in the coma. She is currently on a ventilator.

The Wolves star ended the video by saying:

"I wanted to make this video to understand the severity of this disease is real. This disease needs to not be taken lightly. Please protect your loved ones, your friends, yourself. Practice social distancing, please don't be in places with lots of people. This disease is deadly."

Just last week, Towns announced he was donating $100,000 to Mayo Clinic for COVID-19 tests. The clinic said this donation would help bring available tests from 200 per day to 1000 per day.