Texas Legends honor Maus Miracle

Pictured left to right: Legends President – Bill Boyce, Kylee Shea, Kristen Goodgion, Brent Reese and Mike Shea

It was American Heart Association Night at the Texas Legends game this past Friday. Several people were honored on the court prior to the game. What made Friday special were a 12-year-old Maus Middle school student and her teachers.

On September 26th, while walking to gym class Kylee Shea collapsed, stopped breathing and began turning blue. Kylee was a completely healthy child with no cardiac history, now she was laying lifeless on the hallway floor when Kristen Goodgion, a gym teacher at Maus rushed to her side.

Fellow gym teacher Brent Reese soon joined Goodgion who had already begun CPR on the lifeless child who had stopped breathing. Goodgion obtained the school, automatic external defibrillator (AED) and essentially kept young Kylee alive until the paramedic and could arrive. Kylee was then flown by helicopter to Children’s Medical Center.

Kylee suffered a heart arrhythmia. She had no cardiac history and there is no family history of heart arrhythmia. Doctors installed a pace maker in Kylee and she returned to school a few weeks later. She has some sports restrictions, but should be fine from now on.

Goodgion and Reese kept their cool, they used their training and they saved a life. Survival for a child collapsing outside a hospital is only 3%. Doctors indicated that if Goodgion took an additional 30 seconds to get to Kylee we could have had a very different outcome.

With so much in the news recently about schools and coaches who should have and could have done more, here is a living example of two coaches who, when faced with a dire circumstance used their training and saved the life of a child.

It was an honor to meet Kylee and her father. She is an effervescent young lady and it’s obvious how grateful she is to be alive.