Carrollton

Coach Credits Students and Colleagues for Saving His Life

Evans' Angels took action when their coach went into cardiac arrest

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A coach in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD can share something good because his students and colleagues did something good for him.

They saved his life.

"The defib happened and my heart stopped," Robert Evans said. " They said 99 out of 100 don’t survive.”

Evans is the wrestling and tennis coach at R.L. Turner High School. He went into cardiac arrest following the end of a wrestling match in December of last year.

"Suddenly, he felt weak and blacked out," " district superintendent Dr. John E. Chapman, III wrote in an email to staff at the time. "Fortunately, Coach Evans was surrounded by wonderful people at Turner High School who took lifesaving actions to assist him. 911 was called and Coach Eric Costa quickly got the AED and Coach Josh Oestricher performed CPR."

Evans later learned that one of his wrestlers, Kelly Reyes, called 911 and rushed to get the other coaches.

"If it wasn’t for the fact that the wrestlers, my little state finalist Kelly Reyes and the other wrestlers calling 911, had the smarts to get call 911, rush to get the basketball coaches to get the defibrillator," Evans said in a video the district posted to YouTube. "If it wasn’t for those guys, I probably wouldn’t be there today. "

Evans said the coaches shocked him twice with the AED at school and paramedics did it again five more times.

"They said from Turner driving the hospital, they said, I was dead. I was dead for 15 minutes," Evans said in the video. "They said as I rolled into the hospital, as they put the tube down my throat, I woke up and pulled the tube out of my throat and said, 'What's going on?'"

Evans’ Angels as they’re now called, were all honored at a recent school board meeting for what they did to save him.

Evans made a full recovery and his now back at work. He knows a miracle happened that night -- and it’s changed his life.

"Make sure you really, really, really make sure that the people around you know you appreciate them, that you love them," he said.

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