$2000.00 DeFib Saves HS Athlete's Life

[eiregi]

Holding off death

 

Doctors - and booster club's AED - save lineman's life

 

 

11:03 PM CDT on Saturday, September 23, 2006

 

 

Matt Nader, 6-6, 300 pounds, a top Texas recruit, a kid who dreamed of playing in the NFL, asked his Austin Westlake coach if he'd just blocked the right guy on the last drive.

 

And then Matt fell on his back, his feet up on the bench where he'd been sitting.

 

Nothing had prepared Matt's parents for what was to come. Paul Nader and Barbara Bergin are both doctors, and they still had no idea.

 

No history of heart problems. Nothing on an echocardiogram. No drugs they knew of.

 

Nothing.

 

Up in the visitors section at A&M Consolidated in College Station, they didn't even know he'd passed out until told by other parents.

 

"We ran as fast as we could," Paul said.

 

When they got to their son, his breathing was shallow, almost nonexistent. Paul lifted his son's wrist and felt no pulse. He asked Barbara to check his neck.

 

Nothing.

 

Frightened beyond words, Paul and Barbara nonetheless had the wherewithal to do what was needed.

 

Paul thumped Matt's chest with his fist and started compressions. Barbara did mouth-to-mouth.

 

Next thing you know, doctors are all around them, a perk of living in one of Austin's most affluent areas. Doctors like to live there, and they have football players, too.

 

One doctor at the game was a cardiologist, Paul Tucker. As he took over, he called for the school's automated external defibrillator, or AED.

 

Westlake boosters had bought the AED, which goes for $1,500 to $2,000, four years earlier. They'd never used it.

 

They needed it last Friday. A doctor told the Austin American-Statesman that Matt, his face pale, lips blue, had "the look of death."

 

A trainer cut off Matt's jersey and pads. He wiped the sweat off Matt's chest. Then Tucker applied the AED pads.

 

A light went on, indicating a distressed heart. Tucker told everyone to back away.

 

Matt's chest heaved with the jolt of electricity.

 

Tucker felt a pulse. Matt's eyelids fluttered.

 

"Did I get to play?" he asked as they loaded him in the ambulance.

 

"How did I do?"

 

Matt Nader is doing just fine, thank you. They still don't know why he suffered a ventricular fibrillation, even after three days in the hospital and a battery of tests. Could have been his size and the heat and the 16-play drive. Maybe a reaction to a bee sting. They have no answers.

 

Doctors installed a defibrillator in his chest Monday. He won't play football anymore, though Texas will honor its offer with a medical scholarship.

 

Losing his dream is "a huge blow." But his parents also console him with the information that less than two out of a hundred victims survive such an episode outside a hospital without brain damage at the least.

 

"I guess the real succinct way of summarizing it," Paul said, "was that in order for Matt to survive, all the things happened that needed to happen.

 

"And also because an AED was there."

 

As for their son's future, they'd been telling him all along he needed to prepare for the time he couldn't play football anymore.

 

"Now," Paul told him, "get ready for the next 50 years."

 

Here's to life after football, Matt. A long life.

 

E-mail ksherrington@dallasnews.com

[mcjeff215]

It's crazy not to have one in every athletic dept. especially considering the cost/benefit. It's also nice to see that they've offered the kid a medical scholarship.

 

-Jeff

[Wacka]

And it could be used for some of the teachers too.

[justnzane]

i believe that new york state passed a law that every school has to have one per so much sq. ft and one by athletic facilities (I think that is what my red cross cpr cert teacher told me). I could be wrong, but at the colleges i have competed against and the high school i have coached at, there were defibrillators at just about all of them.

[Tux of Borg]

i believe that new york state passed a law that every school has to have one per so much sq. ft and one by athletic facilities (I think that is what my red cross cpr cert teacher told me). I could be wrong, but at the colleges i have competed against and the high school i have coached at, there were defibrillators at just about all of them.

787769[/snapback]

 

They have one at the school my father works at. He said he would never use it because of liablity reasons.

[ans4e64]

I know at my high school when i was there we had at least 2 of them. They trained every senior and taught us how to use them. Its pretty self explanatory, i mean the damn thing talks to you and tells you what to do, but i wouldnt be suprised if that was the law a previous poster spoke of.

[justnzane]

I know at my high school when i was there we had at least 2 of them. They trained every senior and taught us how to use them. Its pretty self explanatory, i mean the damn thing talks to you and tells you what to do, but i wouldnt be suprised if that was the law a previous poster spoke of.

787836[/snapback]

 

indeed they are pretty self explanatory, and the new ones actually talk to you and tell you exactly what to do. you could probably have a 7 year old operate one of them (god forbid, the kids don't use it on each other for a rush)