‘God gave me a second chance’: School staff’s quick actions help to save the life of a child who had a heart attack
Ethan Velazquez is back enjoying the things he loves—including playing the guitar—thanks to the life-saving efforts of three staff members at Holy Spirit School in Indianapolis: Stacy Inman-Davidson, left, Lucas Stippler and Lauren McLaughlin. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)
By John Shaughnessy
The fear flashes in their eyes again as the educators recall rushing to the child who was lifeless on the ground.
In one moment, 11-year-old Ethan Velazquez raced across the playground at Holy Spirit School in Indianapolis, playing soccer with his friends. In the next moment, he collapsed—becoming immediately unresponsive, showing no signs of breathing.
Stacy Inman-Davidson reached Ethan first, followed soon by Lauren McLaughlin and Lucas Stippler. The three Holy Spirit staff members worked quickly to give Ethan CPR, the cardio‑pulmonary resuscitation that all teachers and extended-care staff members in Indiana are required to learn.
“I was scared when I ran over to him, seeing him lifeless, not breathing, turning purple,” says Inman-Davidson, a recess worker at the time. “I was holding him and talking to him and giving him air. I thought every time I was giving him air, I was giving oxygen to his brain.”
McLaughlin joined in, doing chest compressions.
“There was the feeling, ‘Oh, my God! Are we doing the right thing?’ ” says McLaughlin, a kindergarten teacher. “He didn’t have a pulse. When we had done one round of 30 compressions, he started to gasp. Then he lost all coloring, he started to foam at the mouth, and there was no pulse again.”
As Stippler kept telling Ethan, “Stay with us, Ethan! Stay with us!” the other two continued CPR, trying to revive his heart and keep oxygen flowing into his lungs and brain until an ambulance arrived.
When it did, the paramedics took over Ethan’s care, and the emotions suddenly poured from the three educators.
“Stacy had lost a child in a drowning,” says Rita Parsons, the principal of Holy Spirit School. “When the ambulance came, she just broke down. It’s amazing the strength she had.”
As the paramedics lifted Ethan into the ambulance, he was still lifeless.
‘God, I don’t think this is the time…’
There are certain phone calls that parents never want to get, and the ones that Jenny and Enrique Velazquez received about Ethan that afternoon shook them to their core.
Jenny received her phone call first, telling her that Ethan had collapsed on the playground, to come quickly.
“When I see the ambulance and Ethan on the ground and him not responding, never in my mind did I think that his heart had stopped,” Jenny recalls.
She rode in the front seat of the ambulance as it rushed her son to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. During the frantic ride, she turned to watch the paramedics give Ethan CPR a third time, followed by an attempt to revive his heart with electric shock paddles. It didn’t work.
“I told him, ‘Ethan, Mommy’s here! Please stay with me!’ ”
The paramedics used the paddles again. This time, his heart started beating.
In the ambulance, Jenny phoned her husband at work, crying as she told Enrique everything that had happened.
“I was scared, but I felt at peace,” he recalls. “I told her, ‘He will be OK. Talk with God.’ ”
When their call ended, Enrique had his own talk with God.
“When I talk to God, I know 100 percent he’s my Father and Ethan’s Father. I said, ‘God, I don’t think this is the time for you to take Ethan with you.’
“Then I called Ethan’s godfather and my best friends. They’re really close to God. I tell them that I need them, that Ethan’s had a heart attack.
“When I got into the emergency room, Ethan looks really bad. There were 10 to 15 people in the room—doctors and nurses. When I took Ethan’s hand, he’s really cold. A lot of his chest is blue. I thought he had passed away.”
‘Doctor, it’s God’
As a medical team cared for Ethan, his doctors decided to put him in an induced coma.
“The doctor told us that Ethan had a heart attack, and the only thing we can do is wait,” Enrique recalls. “He said the next 72 hours are crucial. The doctor said there might be brain damage because he’s not sure there was enough oxygen to his brain.”
As each day passed, the prayer tree for Ethan grew. Its roots were in the friends and even strangers from Holy Spirit Parish and the school community. It also extended to family members in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Spain.
“We’re close to God,” Enrique says. “My faith is strong and big, but this is pain. I don’t want this to happen to anyone.
“I get down on my knees and start praying. I say, ‘God, I know you are the best. You are really smart. But give me the opportunity to have Ethan here. Please don’t take him yet.’ ”
One of the people who prayed fervently every day was Inman-Davidson, whose 4-year-old son drowned in a swimming pool at an apartment complex in 2009.
“The whole time Ethan was in the hospital, I felt I had lost my son all over again,” says the mother of three daughters, Alana, 9, Layla, 5, and Athena, 4. “I was a mess.”
Yet three days after Ethan was rushed to the hospital—as his mother prayed the “Our Father” at her son’s bedside—all the prayers were answered as Ethan awakened from the coma.
In the days that followed, medical tests were done on Ethan.
“The doctor said, ‘Your boy isn’t sick. He’s 100 percent healthy,’ ” Enrique says.
“He doesn’t have any consequences. The doctor was impressed. He couldn’t explain what happened. I said, ‘Doctor, it’s God.’ ”
‘God gave me a second chance at life’
Eight months have passed since that May afternoon in 2016 when Ethan collapsed on the playground.
Since then, he has celebrated his 12th birthday. His recovery was also celebrated at a school Mass by the community that prayed countless rosaries for him during his time in the hospital. Everyone in the church that day gave Ethan a standing ovation.
“That made me feel really happy,” Ethan says. “I was with my friends again. They were glad to see me.”
He’s back to playing soccer, swimming, playing his guitar and reading the Bible—all the things he used to do. The only difference is that the doctor implanted a pacemaker in him—as a precaution.
“Most people who saw me on the playground that day probably didn’t think I was going to make it,” he says. “God gave me a second chance at life.”
He feels the same way about Inman-Davidson, McLaughlin and Stippler.
“They care for me,” Ethan says. “They look out for everyone in the school. And they would do anything to save a life.”
His parents are ever grateful.
“God stayed with us,” his mother says. “God gave me my son again.”
“It happened in the right moment in the right place with the right people,” says Ethan’s father, citing how quickly the Holy Spirit staff members responded to give his son CPR. “I know that’s God. God is love.”
‘I wonder what God has planned for you’
The whole experience has also left its mark on the people who initially helped Ethan.
“I hug him every day, and he hugs me back,” Inman-Davidson says. “He looks for me. He and I are best friends. Even now, I think about him and worry about him, like he’s one of my own kids.”
McLaughlin says, “I’ve told Ethan, ‘I wonder what God has planned for you. There’s a reason you’re still here, kiddo.’ ”
Stippler, an after-school recess worker who is studying to be a nurse, shakes his head in wonder whenever he sees Ethan.
“People die of this every day,” he says. “Everything had to fall into place for him to still be here. After everything that happened and he recovered, he came back to school and gave me a card and a bracelet.”
The bracelet is inscribed with a Bible verse from the Book of Joshua: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Jos 1:9).
Stippler wears the braided bracelet every day as a reminder of the difference that he hopes to make in people’s lives as a nurse, as a reminder of the difference everyone made to Ethan, as a reminder of the difference Ethan makes to them.
“I’ll never forget his face that day.” Stippler says. “He’s a miracle walking.” †
