We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.
The date Aug. 28, 2008, will remain with Thelen for the rest of his life. It was the opening of high school football, a night which he had been a part of numerous times in his 37-year coaching career.
The Big Reds had traveled to Holt for the season opener. Sexton scored a touchdown late in the first half when Thelen, the Big Reds’ receivers coach, turned toward the bench to congratulate his players.
A wave of dizziness enveloped him. Then, darkness.
For nearly 15 minutes, Thelen, 62, was dead on the sidelines, the result of a heart attack.
Paramedics stationed nearby responded swiftly.
“If not for the ambulance, I would be dead,” Thelen said. “They had to use the defibrillator paddles on me twice.”
Stunned Sexton fans, players and coaches watched as medical staff worked frantically to resuscitate him, ripping apart his red “Sexton Football” shirt.
“It was scary, that’s for sure,” Sexton head coach Dan Boggan said. “We’re really happy that he came back. It didn’t look good.”
His wife of four years, Maureen, bolted out of her seat in the stands. She doesn’t remember how she reached her husband’s side.
“I don’t remember anybody’s face around him,” she said. “I don’t even know what I was thinking.”It was pretty devastating and horrifying. He was shaking back and forth. It didn’t feel like 15 minutes.”
Medical staff rushed him to Ingham Regional Medical Center where surgeons inserted a defibrillator. He stayed in intensive care before being released on the following Sunday.
Two days later, Thelen suffered a second heart attack. He spent another two weeks at Sparrow Hospital recuperating.
Incredibly, Thelen was back at Sexton game four weeks after his heart attacks. This time, he watched from the stands alongside his wife.
The Thelens’ home will be filled with gifts, children and grandchildren for the holidays, and no one is more appreciative than Thelen.
“I’m grateful to have the family at home,” he said. “I shouldn’t be here, so it means all the more to me.”
