Positivity: Miracle on the wrestling mat

From suburban Chicago:

March 12, 2007

Defibrillator saves heart attack victim who was at Bloom Trail High School for grandson’s tournament

Sitting in the stands of Bloom Trail High School’s fieldhouse for a wrestling tournament, Tom Anderson may have expected to see an airplane spin, hammer throw or even a double leg hook piledriver.

What the 61-year-old grandfather wasn’t counting on was his heart stopping before his grandson took to the mat.

As Brian Fuqua, Bloom Trail’s assistant wrestling coach, prepared to ask his son to cue the music, Anderson collapsed on the floor.

“Are you ready?” Fuqua asked his 13-year-old son.

“Dad, we have a problem,” Jake replied.

Anderson’s daughter-in-law flagged down referee Frank Campos. Instead of a hammer throw, the Joliet man hammered Anderson’s chest with his fists in hopes of getting the heart to quiver.

With the help of Tinley Park firefighter Adam Culbertson and Elk Grove Village firefighter Dean Jamrozek, the three began CPR.

A minute passed.

Then another.

And another.

Bloom Trail athletic trainer Erich Stockwell arrived with the defibrillator.

They shocked Anderson.

After 11 minutes without a pulse, he gasped for air.

He was alive.

But was he all right?

They asked him if he knew his location; what day of the week it was; who served as the president of the United States.

“It should be me, but it’s Bush,” said Anderson, of Downers Grove.

And just like that, the good-natured joke of the recovering heart-attack victim killed the tension of the potentially fatal March 4 morning and kindled a spirit of endearment among strangers.

Steger Fire Department Lt. Mike Winder rolled out a groggy but lucid Anderson and took him to St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields.

But not without protest from Anderson first.

“This gentleman didn’t want to leave,” said Tom Tong, head coach at Bloom Trail. “He said he came to watch his grandson wrestle.”

Little 6-year-old Riley Anderson, along with the rest of the 700 or so 5- through 8-year-old wrestlers from across the state, eagerly waited to compete in the All Illinois Bantam Championship.

By 9 a.m., nearly an hour after initially planned, the crowd of 2,700 roared at the much-anticipated airplane spins and hammer throws.

Riley’s SCN Youth Wrestling Club coaches Walt Jimenez and Scott Jaffe kept the quiet but competitive grandson focused, while Riley’s dad, Dave Anderson, accompanied his father to the hospital.

After assurances that Tom Anderson would be fine — and jokes about him stopping to sign autographs for well-wishers — Dave hustled back to the high school in time for Riley’s last three matches.

The roller coaster of a day ended with Riley winning the championship for the 49-pound tot division.

“It was the icing on the cake,” Dave said.

The cake itself was having his father suffer sudden cardiac death and awaken no worse for the wear.

“It was like he took an 11-minute nap,” Dave said.

Nothing short of a miracle, Tom affirmed.

“God decided it wasn’t my time to go,” Tom said. “Either that, or he didn’t have room for me.”

What there was room for was believers.

Fuqua left adamant about the life-saving potential of defibrillators.

Tom Anderson trusts in fate and the good will of others. He and his wife, Carol, almost didn’t make it to the tournament, nearly missing the dedication of the people who saved his life.

“They were the most tremendous people I ever met in my life,” said Tom, who was released from the hospital Thursday after doctors placed a small defibrillator in his chest to ensure the attack he escaped once wouldn’t repeat itself.

Campos swears by the simple skills of CPR, which Tom promised he’s going to learn.

When Campos is not saving lives, he works as a truck driver for Chicago Tube & Iron.

But if you call him a hero, the father of three will laugh.

“I’d do it again for anybody,” said Campos, who spent 10 years of his life as a paramedic.

Since then, he’s administered CPR on three people, two of whom lived to thank him for it.

Culbertson visited a smiling Anderson in the hospital after the championship.

“A whole bunch of people just came out of the woodwork to save this man’s life,” Culbertson said. “I feel good that I was able to help out.”

The slew of rescuers included nurses Noreen Pierandozzi, Kristen Studly and parent Julie Ferraro, along with a number of anonymous good Samaritans.

“That morning they saved his life,” Dave said. “It’s the closest thing to a miracle I’ve seen.”