A six-year-old boy was saved by his quick-thinking mother after he went into cardiac arrest in the middle of a baseball game. Oscar Stuebe suffered commotio cordis, the same rare condition that almost killed NFL player Damar Hamlin, when he was hit by a baseball on March 10.
His mother Sarah Stuebe rushed onto the field and, along with another parent, gave him CPR – which must be administered within three minutes. Oscar was filling in for his seven-year-old brother’s little league team in Lake Worth, Florida, when he tried to catch a fly ball in centerfield but was hit in the chest.
He immediately slumped to the ground and his father Riley ran to help. ‘Initially, it seemed he got the wind knocked out of him, but in seconds, Riley and the other coaches on the field realized it was more serious,’ Sarah wrote online. Riley called in a panic for his wife and she dialed 911 before handing her phone to a friend to explain the situation, and running to her son.
‘I will never forget the way Riley screamed my name,’ she wrote. Sarah, who is a nurse, saw that Oscar was having a seizure and struggling to breathe, and neither she nor Riley could find a pulse. ‘Everything was stiff. His fingers were stiff, his hands were stiff, his arms were stiff. You could tell he was not in control of his body,’ Riley told NBC.
Sarah added: ‘He went lifeless. His eyes were rolling in the back of his head. He turned grey. He started gasping.’ His mother began CPR for about two minutes before a parent from a the game on the neighboring field took over until paramedics arrived.
Oscar was rushed to St Mary’s Medical Center and woke up delirious and hallucinating the next day and did not sleep again until 5pm the following evening. ‘Sleep apparently was the best medicine. He woke up and was like, “Hi, Mom!” And it was him,’ Sarah said.
Oscar’s parents didn’t leave his bedside and were still in the clothes they wore to the baseball game two days earlier. After a few days of physical therapy, he was released from hospital and sent home, where Sarah’s family had flow in to look after Oscar’s three brothers.
Oscar is back to his old self, and he and his brothers will wear chest protectors whenever they play, even if it’s just in the backyard. Sarah said baseball and lacrosse were the two sports with the highest risk of commotio cordis, and all kids who play should wear them.