(NEWS) –Jose Agredano was on the pitch for his last JV soccer game of the season earlier this month when his parents, who were watching from the stands in Watsonville, Calif., Noticed something was wrong. They ran towards their 16-year-old son, who had been hit by a bullet, as he collapsed and stopped breathing. His mother, Dr Gina Agredano, jumped into action, doing CPR on her boy for three minutes until an on-site defibrillator was brought in to shock and restart Jose’s heart. “I told myself that we were not going to die today”, tells Gina Agredano to the Mercury News. The bullet had struck Jose on the left side of his chest, stopping his heart in what’s known as impact-induced cardiac arrest.
A doctor who treated José in the hospital after his ordeal explains that such events are possible when something hits the left side of a person’s chest at just the right time in the electrical heart cycle, between heartbeats. “If it hadn’t been for the CPR and the defibrillator, Jose would have died,” she says. Jose – who managed to pass the ball before collapsing, according to the Benito Link, and initially thought he had just been blown away, according to KTVU – should make a full recovery without damage in the long run. His reaction when he woke up in the ambulance? “I was really happy to be alive, but a little upset because I wanted to keep playing.” (A teenager helped save the life of the officer who put him in jail.)
This story originally appeared on Newser:
A boy collapsed on a football field. His mother saved his life
More Newser:
Mosquitoes ignore your citronella candles
Gender on YouTube Helps Viewers Reach ‘Brain Orgasm’
Guardian charged with death of bedbug
Newser is a USA TODAY content partner providing background information, commentary, and web coverage. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
