Within the past two days, two area newspapers have done a story on a new friend and I. Its my story of Long QT success through two different writers and am told that it is very "heartwarming". (The links are to the actual website, but I didn't know if they would work or not.. so let me know what you think =])
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/08/12/scholastic/doc48a0f62c1f8b457 9856654.txt
From The Pantagraph out of Bloomington-Normal Illinois Article By Randy Kindred Published 8/12/08
A mix of rain and sun produced one of nature’s wonders on July 12 during the Amateur Softball Association 16-under State Tournament at Springfield.
Or was it two?
“There were two rainbows …,” confirmed Kayli Newell, pitcher for the Illini Inferno. “… one with each of our names on it.”
That may not have been clear to most who watched the Bloomington-Normal Girls Softball Association Red Hots defeat the Inferno, 7-0. Yet, to Newell and Red Hots’ second baseman Katie Gibbons, the rainbows were symbolic of the journey that united them on that mid-summer day.
Both had endured dark clouds, and been told their softball careers were over. Instead, they were on the field. The sky was bright again.
Their story, while heartwarming, is mostly heart regulating.
Newell, 17, of Tremont, is back in the game thanks to an Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (AICD), a device that monitors heart rate and gives the heart a shock in the event of life-threatening arrhythmias.
Newell suffers from ventricular tachycardia. On May 11, 2007, it caused her to collapse during a Tremont High School junior varsity game, and in October led to chest pain and a near-collapse during class.
Gibbons, 16, of Normal, is playing with a pacemaker ICD necessitated by Long QT syndrome, which leads to arrhythmia during exercise or excitement and can result in fainting or sudden death. Unlike Newell, she had no warning signs. Her defect was discovered during tests to determine the source of recurring headaches.
Two cardiologists told Gibbons she could no longer play softball. A third, in Indianapolis, told her there were options, most notably the ICD.
“My parents weren’t convinced that was the right way to go,” Gibbons said. “It’s major surgery, it’s super expensive and ‘is it (softball) really worth that?’ ”
Ironically, a story on Newell’s return to the diamond, aired in April on WHOI-TV in Peoria, led Matt and Kelli Gibbons to open up to the idea. A friend alerted them to Newell’s story, and Kelli Gibbons contacted Lisa Newell, Kayli’s mother and a paramedic.
“After my mom talked to Lisa, she was convinced it would be OK because it was proven to work,” Katie Gibbons said.
So in May, after watching her sophomore season with the Normal Community junior varsity from the dugout/first-base coaching box, Gibbons underwent surgery, seven months after Newell.
Still, neither they, nor their parents, had met before the July 12 game at Springfield.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s her,’ ” Gibbons said.
Afterward, she told Newell, “You’re the reason I’m playing softball.”
“We took pictures and exchanged scars,” Newell said. “It felt good that I was able to help someone.”
The two have kept in contact through phone calls, text messages, etc. While the topics vary, the communication almost always includes softball.
“It’s in our blood,” said Newell, who also has endured three surgeries on her left knee, the most recent two weeks ago. “Asking us not to play is like asking us not to breathe.”
“It sounds bad that you would give your life for a sport, but that is what I live for,” Gibbons said.
Their parents’ peace of mind extends beyond the diamond. Kelli Gibbons used to worry constantly that her daughter would “do things she’s not supposed to do.”
“To Katie, it was all softball. For us, it’s so much more than softball,” Kelli Gibbons said. “Every time she would leave I’d think, ‘OK, somebody watch over her because I can’t be there right now.’ ”
Don and Lisa Newell are relieved as well, though as a paramedic, Lisa said, “I know you can have a defibrillator and still die from cardiac arrest.”
“Some parents have told me, ‘I’d have said no way my daughter is going to play,’ ” she added. “But this was happening whether Kayli was playing softball or sleeping or at dinner. Are we going to tell her to stop eating or stop sleeping? And if you knew Kayli, you can’t just put her in a box. She’s going to do what she wants to do.”
Topping the list is softball. Newell said she has played “since I could walk,” and at age 9 was diagnosed with asthma because of occasional breathing problems during physical activity. Turns out it likely was the heart problem.
She says she now can tell when episodes are about to occur and can keep them from progressing too far.
“But the AICD is there for that one time I might not be able to,” Newell said.
The same applies for Gibbons, who was given the Sportsmanship Award on the NCHS JV team. Matt Gibbons praised NCHS JV coach Dana Curby and varsity coach Bob Grimes for supporting his daughter and making her part of the team.
Gibbons and Newell would like to one day be part of a college team, but said most do not allow athletes with AICDs or ICDs.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try,” Newell said. “If we can’t play, maybe we can change the future for players after us.”
http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1507909586/Wessler-Girls-able-to-breathe-play -again#comments
From The Peoria Journal Star out of Peoria, Illinois Article By Kirk Wessler Published 8/10/08
The first time they met, in July on a softball field in Springfield, Katie's team had just whipped Kayli's in the state tournament. They eyeballed each other in the postgame handshake line, each having learned during the game who the other was. Then Katie circled back.
"You're Kayli Newell," Katie Gibbons said. "You're my hero."
That made Kayli so happy, she cried. Katie cried, too. Then the two of them stood out there on the field and hugged and cried and laughed like long-lost sisters. Here's why.
"Softball is my air," says Kayli, who will be a junior at Tremont High School.
"That's me, too," says Katie, a junior-to-be at Normal Community.
And not so long ago, both 16-year-olds were suffocating, because playing softball was no longer an option.
May 11, 2007, Kayli grew short of breath, became disoriented and passed out while pitching a game for her school team. It wasn't unusual for Kayli to push too hard and wind up in distress. She had been diagnosed with asthma as a child, and that day was hot and humid.
"I thought she just overheated," recalls her mother, Lisa, a paramedic.
But Kayli was unresponsive to verbal prompts. Then her eyes rolled back. Her heart was racing. When they got Kayli to Pekin Memorial Hospital, Lisa saw the readings on the heart monitor and suddenly realized this was no asthma attack. Kayli went into VTAC - ventricular tachycardia, characterized by an abnormally rapid heart beat.
"Oh, my God," Lisa thought, "I do CPR on these people. If I had taken her home and just put her on the couch to rest, she could have died."
Kayli was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, where she recovered and was sent home. But while that was the most severe episode she experienced, it wasn't the last. To control her condition, known as sustained ventricular tachycardia, Kayli underwent surgery last Oct. 22 and received an automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or AICD.
She returned to the Turks softball team this spring, with doctors' blessings. That's when Jim Mattson, sports director at WHOI-TV produced a story on her comeback. And that's when a friend of Kelli Gibbons in Normal called with an urgent message to turn on Channel 19.
On Dec. 6, 2006, Kelli's daughter, Katie, had collapsed while working out on a treadmill. After a series of tests, Katie was diagnosed with long QT syndrome, an erratic and often rapid heart rhythm. Her softball career, the doctor said, was over.
The Gibbonses sought a second opinion and found one with Dr. Joyce Hubbard. The Indianapolis doctor held out hope - if Katie could be outfitted with an AICD. Whoa! Katie's parents weren't keen on heart surgery for their 15-year-old daughter. They needed to think about it.
Then came the call about the television story on Kayli Newell.
Kelli Gibbons immediately called Tremont High School, searching for a way to reach Kayli's mother. She was shocked and overjoyed when Lisa called back 10 minutes later and put most of her fears to rest.
After missing her high school season, Katie underwent surgery on May 20 and a month later was cleared to play. She rejoined her summer travel team, the BNGSA Red Hots, as a second baseman and accompanied them to the ASA 16-under state finals in late July.
During one game at state, she noticed something that triggered her memory. The pitcher for the Illinois Inferno was wearing a pink knee brace and a pink ballglove. Why did that seem familiar? Perhaps she had seen it on TV. Katie asked her team scorekeeper for the pitcher's name.
"Newell," the scorekeeper said.
"Oh, my gosh, my heart, like, stopped," Katie says, not meaning to crack wise. "I was shaking like crazy."
Near the end of the game, Katie remembers, a rainbow appeared in the sky beyond the field. Like some sort of sign that something greater had brought them together at this time and place. Two girls who live and breathe softball, who can't imagine life without pitching and hitting and throwing and running the bases and diving in the dirt. Two girls who thought all of that was over for them, only to find a miracle that allowed them to play on. One girl because of the other.
"You're my hero," Katie said to Kayli. "You're the reason I got my surgery. You're the reason I'm here playing."
Kayli says she was humbled. She grew up with a glove on; hammered dents and holes in the family garage door with untold thousands of practice pitches. Before all this, she took softball for granted.
"Now, I look at it as a blessing," Kayli says. "I'm blessed to be on the team I was on this summer, blessed to play. Katie called me her hero. I've never heard that before. I'm just glad to be here to help."
-- I guess my ending note to you all is just to never give up. Miracles can happen if you just believe and push for them.
---Katie Gibbons