A missed fly ball stopped a 6-year-old's heart during a baseball match—his mom's quick act helped restart it
Seeing their child in a life-threatening situation can be super scary for parents. But when a mom saw her five-year-old go into a cardiac arrest after being hit by a fly ball at a baseball game, she had to get into action immediately. The moment she understood something was off, she called 911 and then got to work to get her son breathing again. Eventually, the 6-year-old Oscar Stuebe was fine, but the incident helped his parents learn and spread an important message, per TODAY.com.
Oscar was playing baseball as a centerfielder in Lakeworth, Florida, when he was hit by a ball. It was not a hard hit and the boy hadn't been hit directly on his chest either. "It was a very unspectacular pop fly in centerfield that we've seen in the backyard hundreds of times. It wasn't a hard drive. It wasn't a direct hit to his chest," the boy's dad, Riley, recounted. Oscar ran towards the ball with his mitt in the air. "It looked like he caught it and it dropped. And then, he fell. To the ground," the mom, Sarah, pointed out. Riley rushed to his son from the stands and the mom didn't think it was something serious until her husband called for her. "I’ll never forget that. It was just the way he said it."
When Riley reached Oscar, he was surprised to find that all of his body was stiff. "Everything was stiff. His fingers were stiff, his hands were stiff, his arms were stiff. You could tell he was not in control of his body." He added, "I've seen trauma and this was certainly in line with all of that. We couldn't find a pulse." The mom, who is also a nurse, quickly grabbed her phone and called 911. She handed the phone to her friend so she could explain the details while the woman rushed to her son. "He was having a seizure. During that, he went lifeless. His eyes were rolling in the back of his head. He turned grey. He started gasping," Sarah explained.
Sarah turned Oscar to his side and checked for a pulse again before she started CPR. She asked for an AED, a medical device to help with cardiac arrests, but it wasn't available in the field. The boy was still unresponsive after two minutes of CPR. Jaime DeFall, a physician's assistant, was present at the neighboring field for his child's game. He relieved Sarah of the work and performed CPR for an additional 2.5 minutes until the first responders arrived. The parents held onto their son's hand for the entire duration. He was rushed to a trauma center and kept intubated as he gradually got better. Oscar had experienced commotio cordis, a rare condition that caused cardiac arrest. He needed physical and occupational therapy to get better.
Soon, Oscar was back to his usual self, much to the relief of his parents. The parents shared that Oscar and his three brothers would wear a chest protector from then on while playing any game. "We said, 'Whether you're in the backyard, at a friend's house, on the field ... you're wearing the shirt,'" Sarah went on. "And they feel cool wearing it. Like they're on the Yankees," Riley continued. The parents hoped that other parents would also have the knowledge, skills and equipment to keep their kids safe from harrowing situations like theirs. They also hoped that everyone would learn CPR for such emergencies.