USF's Cristi Ecks recovers after quick
thinking of peers and a defibrillator!
By
Greg Auman, Times Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2008 10:44 PM
TAMPA — Cristi Ecks lay in the infield
dirt Tuesday afternoon, lifeless.
She had collapsed without warning as she
walked to the pitcher's circle at a routine practice.
Two days earlier in the same space, the
20-year-old pitcher had struck out eight and allowed only
one hit in a dominating but routine outing against Seton
Hall.
But on Tuesday, her heart was sick and her
breathing absent as an athletic trainer administered CPR.
Teammates rushed to nearby fields to call for help.
Finally, after about 2 minutes, 45 seconds, a portable
defibrillator shocked her heart back into rhythm.
"It seemed like a lifetime," said coach
Ken Eriksen, who recounted the scene in detail Wednesday.
"But that's a pretty dang quick response there, from
everybody."
Within minutes, Ecks, a junior from
Manassas, Va., was in an ambulance, and by Tuesday evening,
she was smiling and laughing with teammates from her
hospital room. As of Wednesday afternoon, she had no answers
as to why she collapsed or when or if she'd be able to
return to the sport she loves.
"As bad as it was to see one of our people
hurting," Eriksen said, "it was the greatest feeling in the
world to see her smile."
It could have been tragic
USF has experience with an athlete
collapsing and a more tragic outcome.
Freshman running back Keeley Dorsey died
during a team conditioning workout in January 2007. A
similar situation occurred two weeks ago when University of
Central Florida freshman receiver Ereck Plancher, the cousin
of USF running back Mo Plancher, also died.
"The university has been through a lot,"
Eriksen said, pointing to Dorsey's death, along with that of
former basketball player Bradley Mosley, who died
of a rare kidney cancer in 2005, and Sun Dolls coach
Caroline Wiren, who died at age 34 of
complications from childbirth in May. "Those things are
always in the back of your mind. & It was good to come out
on the winning side, for the university."
USF's athletic department has a certified
trainer at every team's practice, and the athletic facility
has six portable defibrillators that travel to practices for
just such an emergency.
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