“The (Gathers) video shows they carried the AED out, but they never used it,” said Dr. James Tytko, who specializes in sports and family medicine with the Kettering Health Network. “Now, everybody knows that’s the first thing you’ve got to do.”
Thanks to some extraordinary circumstances that included quick-reacting medical personnel at Moeller and others among the estimated 500 spectators who watched in stunned silence, Mays, unlike Gathers, will live to tell his tale.
“It’s a pretty emotional thing for him and very difficult for him to speak about,” said Doug Mays, Grant’s father. “We were helpless. It was obviously very emotional for everyone in the stands and on the field. There was no noise at all; very serene.”
Hospitalized afterward, Mays continues to recover and be monitored at home. He plans on attending Wednesday’s final school day for seniors. His father, one of the founders of Centerville’s youth lacrosse program, said Grant has chosen not to continue playing the sport, and instead will concentrate on attending Miami University as a freshman this fall.
An evolving sport
Growing in popularity, boys and girls lacrosse will be sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association next spring. About 150 Ohio schools offer the sport. Centerville, Springboro, Lebanon, Beavercreek, Alter, Miami Valley, Franklin and Oakwood have programs.
Players don helmets with face guards and shoulder pads. Sticks with webbing at the end catch and whip shots and passes. It’s not for the meek; the most famous collegiate All-American was Syracuse’s Jim Brown.
Centerville and Moeller are among the Southwest District’s longest-running teams and most successful. Trailing 8-2, Mays blocked a shot, scooped the rebound and ran about 40 yards. After passing he knelt, then lay down.
“He was still somewhat alert,” Doug Mays recalled after he and his wife Kelley raced to their son’s side. “Then he began to drift off. There was obviously concern. When his eyes rolled back and his mouth was not moving and his color changed, we overheard one of the trainers and a physician on the field say, ‘He’s starting to seize a bit,’ then, we knew it was bad.”
Mays had been inflicted with “a unique phenomenon called commotio cordis,” Dr. Tytko, the physician for Oakwood High School and the Dayton Dragons, said. This happens when a projectile strikes the heart as it’s “repolarizing,” he said. “There’s only a millisecond in the heart rhythm that it has to hit in order to stop the heart. That drives you right into v-tach, which drops your blood pressure to zero and you pass out.”
Dr. Tytko said when that happens, the heart stops beating and organs quickly lose their blood lifeline. A four- or five-minute window of rescue remains. CPR first aid can help, but only improves a victim’s recovery rate to about 25 percent, he said. What is needed is an AED charge.
A shock to the heart
An AED is a miniature mobile unit that has its roots in traditional hospital code carts. Still used, these are machines in which two electrodes are attached to the victim’s chest, then fired. If successful, the heart is shocked into properly beating.
“We give full credit to the fact that Moeller had an AED that had working batteries and personnel trained to use the AED,” Doug Mays said. “All those things have to be in effect to have a successful reviving.”
There are no rules or regulations regarding AEDs at athletic events, from the peewee to professional levels. Dr. Tytko said most area high schools have one or more and estimated the cost at about $3,000. Coaches must be certified in their usage.
Dr. Tytko said he’s shocked “hundreds” with a code cart, but never used an AED. He said it’s “idiot proof,” and some models provide how-to user instructions. “Even I could figure it out,” he said.
“He is very fortunate that everyone was there and people were aware of what to do when they had an AED. Even if they had very good doctors or trainers on the sideline, without the AED, by the time they would get him to a hospital it could have been very bad.”
Athletic Director Rob Dement said Centerville High School has three AEDs, one anchored outside the AD office for school use, another for athletic events at the high school and a third for events at nearby Legacy Field, where the Elks play their home lacrosse games.
“The resources needed to make sure they are readily available at athletic venues comes down to what it always comes to and that’s funding,” Dement said. “We happen to be blessed in that area.”
Dement said Mays missed Sunday’s scholar-athlete ceremony. He’s is a two-time honoree. “I can’t wait to see him,” Dement said, “just to shake his hand.”
A model of what to do
Ironically, first-year Elks coach Troy Stehlin is a 2008 Moeller grad. He watched as Moeller teammates knelt and prayed for Grant’s recovery while an EMS vehicle whisked him away. Many others, including Centerville players, joined in a unified higher call for help.
“If there’s ever a model in how to react to something like that it was certainly exemplified by those Moeller guys,” Stehlin said. “It was miraculous how it all happened. It was the perfect equation to the worst situation.”
Dement said word quickly spread among players, students and parents via social media that something extraordinary had happened on the field after Grant had left.
“The outcome and what all transpired to make it all happen is nothing short of inspirational,” he said. “I wish I could say what I want to say, but being a public school employee I really can’t. There was more than just luck happening with all the circumstances that occurred.”
Both teams return to action Wednesday in the Ohio High School Lacrosse Association postseason — Centerville at Sycamore and Moeller hosting Walnut Hills. Centerville and Moeller could meet in the tourney.
Grant will celebrate his 18th birthday on Saturday. His parents will celebrate even more.
“I’m looking outside right now and I could be looking outside without a son,” Doug said. “That’s the severity of the situation and the totality of it. We’re blessed and so fortunate. You hear those words every day, but we truly are that we have our son in our home right now.”
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