Fort Worth Student Shocked Back to Life
Quick-thinking coaches honored for using defibrillator on athlete
By SCOTT GORDON
Updated 1:03 PM CST, Wed, Oct 14, 2009
Three Fort Worth high school coaches were honored Tuesday for saving a 15-year-old student athlete's life.
Luis Rubio, a sophomore baseball player at Trimble Tech High School, was running around the track Sept. 10 when he suddenly dropped to the ground.
"I was running, and I felt light-headed and blacked out,” Rubio said.
Coach Tyson Wormsbaker was just feet away.
"He stopped breathing,” Wormsbaker said. “His heart wasn't beating, just bad stuff; the worst thing you'd want to see."
The coach didn’t have much time to decide what to do.
"I just reacted,” he said. “I checked his pulse. I checked his breathing. He wasn't doing either. So I started CPR immediately."
Coach Mike Garza raced over to help.
"I was just worried about a 15-year-old in front of me, fighting for his life,” Garza said.
Meanwhile, a third coach, Jason Braud, ran to get an automated external defibrillator, or AED, while summoning others to call 911.
The coaches used the device to administer an electric shock to Rubio’s chest.
"As soon as he was shocked by the AED, it was within a second or two, and he woke up,” Wormsbaker said. “He wanted to get up."
A Medstar ambulance happened to be leaving Texas Health Harris Hospital, which is located across the street from the school, and arrived 36 seconds after being dispatched.
Rubio spent the next 16 days in the hospital and now has a small defibrillator implanted in his chest.
If his heart stops again, the machine is designed to shock him automatically.
Medstar and school administrators honored the coaches as heroes at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. Rubio was on hand, too.
The coaches said they were just glad the student is okay.
"I didn't do anything any other coach wouldn't have done,” Garza said.
Wormsbaker was equally humble.
"I was just doing my job. That's all I can say about it,” he said.
In 2007, Texas legislators passed a law requiring every public school to have a defibrillator. It must be available at all athletic practices and games.
Rubio won’t find out if doctors will allow him to play baseball again until he returns to school next month.
If he can’t play, he plans on staying with the team as a coach.
Rubio, who was born with defective heart valves, said the coaches saved his life.
"I'm very thankful for what they did,” he said. “Without them I wouldn't be here. Without the defibrillator, I wouldn't be here."
First Published: Oct 13, 2009 8:49 PM CST
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