VIDEO
Lucky for the 12-year-old player, the football game where he collapsed on the sidelines was in a school district with a comprehensive Cardiac Emergency Response Plan in place.
EULESS, Texas – A North Texas middle school football player is still alive thanks to an emergency plan playing out on the field.
The pre-teen has a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan (CERP) to thank after collapsing on the sidelines.
CERP saves North Texas middle schooler
Trinity AED
The backstory:
It was Andrew Garcia’s second game of the season, and his mom says he was excited because it was his first away game, which meant he got to ride the bus there.
Lucky for Garcia, the football game was in a school district with a comprehensive CERP in place.
Monday night, she was in the stands watching her 12-year-old son play in a middle school football game against Euless Junior High School, when he suddenly dropped to the ground.
Garcia, who plays o-line strong tackle for Haltom Middle School in Birdville ISD, collapsed on the sidelines.
An athletic trainer from Texas Health immediately began doing CPR on the lifeless 7th-grader.
Moments later, an assistant athletic trainer from Trinity High School, where the game was being hosted, ran over with an AED and shocked Garcia.
Garcia was taken by ambulance to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where he remains in the ICU.
As doctors try to determine what caused the near-death health scare, Benavidas is grateful to the quick-thinking trainers who immediately began CPR and grabbed the AED.
‘I can’t thank them enough’
Trinity AED
What they’re saying:
It’s a terrifying image Andrea Benavidas can’t get out of her head.
“I noticed him collapse face forward, no movement, so I immediately knew something was wrong,” said Benavidas.
Whatever afflicted Garcia’s heart, it happened very quickly.
“By the time I made it to him, he had already lost all of the color in his face. He was not responsive at all. He was ice-cold to the touch,” Benavidas said.
The mother is grateful for the plan of action, and the people who were trained to execute it.
“The woman who was giving him chest compressions (is) like an angel, cause you know, she’s the one who kept the oxygen flowing to all his vital organs, so that way they could go get the AED. We all stepped back, and they administered the shock, and he let out a gasp of air, and that’s when he started to breathe again,” Benavidas said.
Denton ISD is mourning the sudden death of 18-year-old Tro’mario Allen Jr., a high school football player and track star.
“And somebody trained to use it on site is what saved his life. And I can’t thank them enough, you know, because without it the doctors said I would have been planning a funeral instead of having my son here,” Benavidas continued.
Now that Garcia is recovering in the hospital, his mom says the medical staff has been amazing.
“The cardiologist says it’s really hard to pinpoint what causes it, especially with no warning signs, no family history, no pre-existing conditions,” said Benavidas.
What’s next:
Garcia hopes to be able to play football again.
His mom says he’s a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, and plans to watch Sunday’s game, even if it’s from his hospital bed.
