Teddy Dowdle collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest a year ago after going up for a rebound while playing basketball with his older brother and friends at Woodridge Park in Cottage Grove.
He was 22.
His family believes Teddy might still be alive had there been a medical device called an automated external defibrillator in the park. “CPR was administered, but there was no AED readily available,” his father, Craig Dowdle, said. “If there had been an AED applied within the first three minutes of his collapse, instead of when the EMTs showed up eight or nine minutes later, there would have been a much greater chance of his survival.”
On Thursday, the first anniversary of Teddy’s death, the Dowdles will install an AED in Woodridge Park — the first outdoor AED device in Cottage Grove.
Craig and Emily Dowdle, along with their son Carter and daughter Olivia, formed Teddy’s Heart Foundation, a nonprofit that educates and advocates for AEDs in public parks. By the end of the year, they hope to install five or six AEDs in parks in Cottage Grove and Woodbury.
Heart defect
Teddy was born with a congenital heart defect, bicuspid aortic valve. When he was 16, he had open-heart surgery to replace his aortic valve. Doctors required that he take one year off from playing sports while he recovered.
Teddy, a student at East Ridge High School, became team manager for the high school football team – the year the team went to the state championship game, Craig Dowdle said. “They lost to Osseo, but we don’t want to talk about that,” he said. “We’re still fuming about that.”
Teddy, who was 6-feet-7, graduated from East Ridge High School in 2018 and from Dakota County Technical College with a degree in electrical construction and maintenance in 2020. He was working as an electrician at Poly America in Cottage Grove at the time of his death.
“He was so proud of that,” Craig Dowdle said. “He was finally making some big money, and he wasn’t afraid to spend it.”
One of his biggest purchases was the white 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 6.2L pickup that he bought just a few months before his death, Craig Dowdle said.
Teddy loved hunting, fishing, playing sports, rooting for the Minnesota Vikings and going to the casino. He had a great sense of humor, kind heart and always rooted for the underdog, Emily Dowdle said.
“One of the things that most impressed me about Teddy was his ability to coach younger kids, especially kids who might need a little extra help,” Craig Dowdle said. “He was always able to coach them up, so they could get better. He would always work with them on improving, always looking to help. He was just always for the little guy.”
Teddy could fix just about anything and would jump into any project, Emily Dowdle said. “I’m a project person, and he would always be my helper,” she said. “He could take anything apart and fix it and put it back together. He did a lot of YouTubing. He would research something and figure it out.”
Not all of his projects were immediate successes. Once, when his sister’s brand-new juicer stopped working, Teddy spent two hours taking the machine apart and putting it back together. It still didn’t work. It turned out Teddy hadn’t checked the outlet’s circuit breaker, Emily Dowdle said. “Oh, we gave him a hard time about being an electrician and not checking that.”
AED SaveStations
The Dowdles are working to raise enough funds to place an AED SaveStation – an outdoor, publicly accessible AED – in every park in Cottage Grove and Woodbury. Each unit costs about $8,000.
The AED SaveStations can tolerate extreme weather and will be available 24/7 to anyone in the area. Anyone can use a SaveStation during an emergency by opening the cabinet and removing the AED. The AED is portable and does not need to remain connected to the SaveStation cabinet. An alarm will sound, and the Cottage Grove Police Department will be notified that someone has removed the AED.
Cottage Grove is in the process of making the city a Heart Safe Community “to ensure that AEDs are easily accessible in the community and that the public is educated and trained to recognize the signs of sudden cardiac arrest and perform hands–only CPR and use AEDs,” said Deputy Fire Chief Jon Pritchard.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, sudden cardiac arrest is the second-leading cause of death in Minnesota, responsible for almost 20 percent of deaths. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, and it’s almost always fatal, Pritchard said.
The Heart Safe Cottage Grove program has already trained more than 1,600 residents in CPR and AED use. More than 20 businesses and organizations have participated in the training, and the program has identified more than 50 AEDs in public areas of the community, he said.
“That’s a big part of what we’re doing, so that people know where the AEDs are in case of an emergency,” he said. “Our goal is to train 2,000 people by the end of 2023 and 4,000 people by the end of 2024. People don’t have to die from cardiac arrest. Teddy didn’t have to die. The sooner someone gets help and has someone working on them, the better the chances of survival.”
Teddy’s Heart dedication of SaveStation AED tower
- When: 6 p.m. Thursday
- Where: Woodridge Park in Cottage Grove
- More information: teddys-heart.org
