WoodysGirl
03-31-2010, 11:44 AM
By MOISES MENDOZA
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
March 31, 2010, 8:58AM
The players panicked as they surrounded an unconscious Jonathan Moore on the football field outside Pearland's Glenda Dawson High School on March 3.
A minute before, the 16-year-old had been running with his teammates prepping for football practice. But Jonathan, a husky fullback and defensive tackle, suddenly collapsed.
His heart had stopped beating. He had no pulse.
Team trainers Matt Thomas and Chris Shaddock hurried to Jonathan's side and began CPR. Thomas attached an automated external defibrillator to the teen's chest. It shocked his heart, it started beating again and paramedics rushed the teen to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.
Even after being shocked by an AED, the odds of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest can be slim. Things looked dire.
“I was sure he was dead,” Shaddock said.
For more than a decade, football had been Jonathan's life. Following in the footsteps of family members, he started playing at age 6. By the time he entered high school, Jonathan dreamt of getting to the NFL and eventually the Hall of Fame. And though, as a sophomore, he hadn't yet advanced to the varsity squad, he was already getting interest from college coaches.
Jonathan's annual sports physical showed he was healthy. He was playing in game after game without any problems except some minor tiredness — typical for a hard-charging high school athlete.
Then, the 5-foot-8, 230- pound sophomore collapsed. It was the first time Thomas or Shaddock had witnessed such a thing.
It was also a stunner for Eric Wells, the first-year Dawson head coach.
“You stop thinking about football, you stop thinking about everything else,” Wells said. “There was only one thing on my mind: Is he going to be OK?”
At the hospital, doctors started Jonathan on a special cooling therapy, thought to reduce the risk of brain damage in heart attack victims. He underwent a battery of tests.
Finally, they identified what had gone wrong: Jonathan was suffering from ventricular fibrillation. The condition causes heart ventricles to quiver and not contract, causing cardiac arrest and rapid death if not dealt with immediately.
They installed a small device in Jonathan's body that can shock patients' hearts if it detects a problem.
Will never play again
Last week, Jonathan finally went home from the hospital. He will never be able to play football again.
But he's alive.
On Tuesday, Jonathan, his family and the people who saved him gathered at the children's hospital to reflect on their ordeal and emphasize the importance of AEDs — since 2007, state law has mandated that each school have an AED on campus.
Thomas and Shaddock said they weren't really heroes. They were just doing what they were trained to.
“It was a team effort,” Shaddock said.
Jonathan barely remembers anything from the day he collapsed. Someone told him he was doing a good job, but a few days later he found himself lying in a hospital bed, scared and confused.
It was that AED and quick thinking of trainers and coaches that saved him, he knows. And they say he still has a place on the football team, perhaps as an ad hoc coach. He's happy to be living, to be able to still dream of the future.
Still, the pain of giving up playing is a biting one.
“It's like a grieving process,” he said. “It hurts.”
Jonathan's new goal is finding a different path to the Hall of Fame. He wants to go to college and become a professional football coach.
moises.mendoza@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/hso/6937321.html
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
March 31, 2010, 8:58AM
The players panicked as they surrounded an unconscious Jonathan Moore on the football field outside Pearland's Glenda Dawson High School on March 3.
A minute before, the 16-year-old had been running with his teammates prepping for football practice. But Jonathan, a husky fullback and defensive tackle, suddenly collapsed.
His heart had stopped beating. He had no pulse.
Team trainers Matt Thomas and Chris Shaddock hurried to Jonathan's side and began CPR. Thomas attached an automated external defibrillator to the teen's chest. It shocked his heart, it started beating again and paramedics rushed the teen to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.
Even after being shocked by an AED, the odds of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest can be slim. Things looked dire.
“I was sure he was dead,” Shaddock said.
For more than a decade, football had been Jonathan's life. Following in the footsteps of family members, he started playing at age 6. By the time he entered high school, Jonathan dreamt of getting to the NFL and eventually the Hall of Fame. And though, as a sophomore, he hadn't yet advanced to the varsity squad, he was already getting interest from college coaches.
Jonathan's annual sports physical showed he was healthy. He was playing in game after game without any problems except some minor tiredness — typical for a hard-charging high school athlete.
Then, the 5-foot-8, 230- pound sophomore collapsed. It was the first time Thomas or Shaddock had witnessed such a thing.
It was also a stunner for Eric Wells, the first-year Dawson head coach.
“You stop thinking about football, you stop thinking about everything else,” Wells said. “There was only one thing on my mind: Is he going to be OK?”
At the hospital, doctors started Jonathan on a special cooling therapy, thought to reduce the risk of brain damage in heart attack victims. He underwent a battery of tests.
Finally, they identified what had gone wrong: Jonathan was suffering from ventricular fibrillation. The condition causes heart ventricles to quiver and not contract, causing cardiac arrest and rapid death if not dealt with immediately.
They installed a small device in Jonathan's body that can shock patients' hearts if it detects a problem.
Will never play again
Last week, Jonathan finally went home from the hospital. He will never be able to play football again.
But he's alive.
On Tuesday, Jonathan, his family and the people who saved him gathered at the children's hospital to reflect on their ordeal and emphasize the importance of AEDs — since 2007, state law has mandated that each school have an AED on campus.
Thomas and Shaddock said they weren't really heroes. They were just doing what they were trained to.
“It was a team effort,” Shaddock said.
Jonathan barely remembers anything from the day he collapsed. Someone told him he was doing a good job, but a few days later he found himself lying in a hospital bed, scared and confused.
It was that AED and quick thinking of trainers and coaches that saved him, he knows. And they say he still has a place on the football team, perhaps as an ad hoc coach. He's happy to be living, to be able to still dream of the future.
Still, the pain of giving up playing is a biting one.
“It's like a grieving process,” he said. “It hurts.”
Jonathan's new goal is finding a different path to the Hall of Fame. He wants to go to college and become a professional football coach.
moises.mendoza@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/hso/6937321.html