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A Denton family is channeling their grief of losing their teenage son to cardiac arrest into an effort to save lives. It’s a reminder that heart issues can happen to anyone at any age.
In August 2020, 17-year old Dylan Dorrell was a cross country athlete at Guyer High School.
“He was on a cross country team since junior high. And he just really enjoyed being a part of the team more than probably he enjoyed running,” remembers Dylan’s mom, Lisa. “He liked the bus rides and the camaraderie with his buddies. And he just he was just a good, kind kid. He never caused any trouble.”
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After a workout with his team one morning at South Lakes Park, he walked into a bathroom on the park grounds.
“His coach said it was the best practice he had had. He had he finished and went to go wash his hands in that bathroom. And he never came out,” said Lisa.
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Dylan's parents say his coach found him and immediately responded, although it’s unknown how long he was down. CPR was performed but it was too late – he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The news shocked the community.
"I've seen these stories my entire life. And all of us have. And we're always we always probably all say the same thing. Thank goodness, that's not us,” said Gus Dorrell, Dylan’s father. "And here we are, you know, few years after still talking about this, trying to gain strength out of this. And, you know, again, educate the community.”
The years since his passing have been painful but full of purpose for a boy who embraced life, embraced his differences, and gave so much to others.
“He was part of a club called ‘Nerds United.’ He recognized he was a little different, but the strength in Dylan was he always knew who he was. He never hid it from anybody and was very proud of who he was,” said Gus. “I wish I was more like Dylan, even at an older age – like not trying to impress anybody. He knew who he was 100% of the time and that was his strength.”
Lisa added, “We found out students came to us at his funeral that we had never met, just to give us a hug because they said he was the reason they went to school in the morning. Because nobody else would talk to them. Nobody else would give them the time of day. But Dylan took time out to make sure they knew they had a friend set by them at lunch.”
The family has not sat silent or still in their grief, starting a nonprofit lovingly called the Run For Dylan Foundation. It grew to new heights, thanks to the community and the City of Denton.
“It all kind of built on its own. I don't know if we ever had the full intention immediately. You know, we're going 100 miles an hour in many different directions, not knowing which one's the right way to go. It kind of played its own picture out for us as the days went,” said Gus. As more people reached out to help, we felt like this might be our saving grace, almost as if they're the ones telling us just go do it.”
The family channeled their grief into an annual 5K run, sold t-shirts and fundraised enough money to partner with the Denton Parks and recreation department to buy an AED, automated external defibrillator, to install outside the very bathroom where Dylan collapsed.
AEDs are not a common addition to public parks depending on where you live, although some cities have invested in installing the devices in public areas in case of emergency.
"We just want, we want to save a family from going through what we're going through, even if it's just one,” said Lisa. “If we can save one family from going through what we've been through the last two and a half years, then I would feel like maybe there was a purpose for this."
Lisa said a few days after Dylan's death, she spoke to the paramedic who responded to her son's emergency to learn if an AED was used to shock his heart back to normal rhythm. Before delivering the shock, the machine determines whether the person has a shockable rhythm.
"He was very kind and talked to me. And he said that there was never a shockable rhythm," she recalls. "He was never shocked. And that leads us to believe maybe he was down a little longer than everybody thought. And at the hospital, there was never a shock. Just CPR was all it was. But there wasn't an AED right by bathroom, like there is right now."
A medical examiner found that Dylan had previous heart issues unknown to his family that could have led to the cardiac event. Because of this, the Run For Dylan Foundation has paid for 150 heart screenings for youth to date. Lisa said a few of those screenings were actually flagged for potential issues and further examination, something those families wouldn’t have known about.
Now, the next goal for Dylan's family is a huge one. The family is working with Denton city leaders on installing much bigger AED kiosks in South Lakes Park that would have features beyond the machine.
"It's a larger unit that's mounted in the middle of areas, it's more visible and accessible to everyone. And they have more communication capabilities like 911,” said Fince Espinoza, assistant director of park operations and planning for Denton Parks and Recreation.
There is a city council briefing on February 21 where the Denton parks department, alongside the Dorrell family and the American Heart Association, will propose the AED project to city council.
The end goal for the family is to install these kiosks into more parks across Denton, around the state and beyond – saving lives in memory and honor of Dylan.
"Dylan was going to do something in this world,” said Gus. “And you know, whether we do it for him, it doesn't matter, he was going to do something. And this is our way of giving back.”
