HOUSTON — A youth baseball player’s heart stopped after he was hit with a ball during a game, according to television station KLTV in Tyler.
It happened on the league’s opening day. Nine-year-old Tyson Hernandez had taken off for third in a steal attempt when a ball hit him squarely in the chest.
“He took maybe one or two steps and he collapsed on his knees,” said Tyson’s father, Armando Hernandez Jr., who is also one of his coaches. “He made a big sigh like, ‘huh’ and he fell down to his knees. We flipped him over I was trying to talk to him a little bit and he wasn't really responding and I heard someone say we have no pulse.”
KLTV reports that several coaches who are also in the medical field began administering CPR and got his pulse back. An EMS crew arrived and took him to a Dallas hospital.
The diagnosis – commotio cordis.
"It's an injury to the chest that throws the heart out of rhythm,” Tyson’s mother Brittani Hernandez, said. “Unless there is immediate CPR or shock from an AED, usually the person doesn't come out of the rhythm and it could be fatal. The first thing that came to our mind was Damar Hamlin."
The family is now pushing for chest plates to be worn at youth sporting events.
"I think people should wear it, so it doesn't happen, the same thing," said Tyson Hernandez.
They are also pushing for AEDs to be available.
"Just to bring awareness that it can happen to anyone's kid is very important to us," Brittani Hernandez said.