Luis Rubio has, a sophomore baseball player at Trimble Tech High School, was running around the track Sept. 10 when he suddenly dropped to the ground.
Luis Rubio the Survivor with Coaches
“I was running, and I felt light-headed and blacked out,” Rubio said.
Coach Tyson Wormsbaker was just feet away.
The coach didn’t have much time to decide what to do.
“I just reacted,” he said. “I checked his pulse. I checked his breathing. He wasn’t doing either. So I started CPR immediately.”
Coach Mike Garza raced over to help.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life. Watching a 15-year-old struggle like that…” Garza could not finish his sentence as his eyes filled up with tears.
Meanwhile, a third coach, Jason Braud, ran to get an automated external defibrillator, or AED, while summoning others to call 911.
The coaches used the device to administer an electric shock to Rubio’s chest.
“As soon as he was shocked by the AED, it was within a second or two, and he woke up,” Wormsbaker said. “He wanted to get up.”
“When I woke up, I wanted to get up,” Rubio said.
Rubio spent the next 16 days in the hospital and now has a small defibrillator implanted in his chest.
Rubio, who was born with defective heart valves, said the coaches saved his life.
“I’m very thankful for what they did,” he said. “Without them I wouldn’t be here. Without the defibrillator, I wouldn’t be here.”
