HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC TRAINER SAVES LIFE OF COACH

You never know when emergency situations will hit, but being prepared can save a precious life.  That’s what happened on a Saturday in October.

Volcano Vista High School was scheduled to host Farmington in a Junior Varsity Girls Soccer match.  While setting up the field for the match, Volcano Vista athletic trainer Enrique Ochoa was alerted to something he hadn’t experienced before. “I was setting up coolers and kits, getting ready for the game, and I heard one of the coaches yell, ‘Coach! Coach!,’; it was a different kind of tone,” Ochoa described. “I turned around and saw Coach Cuadra on the ground.”

Volcano Vista assistant coach John Alan Cuadra had collapsed.  That’s when Ochoa sprung into action.  “I immediately grabbed my kit, with the AED emergency response equipment,” Ochoa recalled.  An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is a portable device that can be used to treat a person whose heart has suddenly stopped working.  “I saw his face and he was unresponsive,” said Ochoa.  “I yelled, ‘Someone call 911!’, and did what I was taught to do.”  Ochoa says Cuadra suffered a cardiac emergency.  He shocked Cuadra once with the AED and administered a few cycles of CPR to resuscitate him before medical help arrived.

“I had someone help with compressions for a cycle (Jasper Wiggins), which is what we’re taught to do, a bystander gave a few breaths, others opened the gates so the EMS team could pull up close,” said Ochoa.  “Coach Cuadra was doing well when the EMS team arrived.  I’ve never had to do CPR before.  I am grateful APS Athletics got us those AED’s.  If we didn’t have it, the outcome might have been different.”

“The AED and that trainer saved his life,” said Volcano Vista athletic Director Ron McMath.

“Thanks to the NMAA rule that requires schools to have an AED on site in order to host postseason events, that coach is alive,” said Albuquerque High Athletic Director Chad Jones.  “Great kudos to Volcano Vista and their trainer.”

Ochoa is a New Mexico native who’s been the trainer at Volcano Vista High School for 9 years now.  “We are trained to recognize respiratory arrest,” he said.  “I had a great mentor at UNM, Susan McGowen, who instilled in me the importance to stay on top of CPR training.  I’ve stayed on top of it every year.  In fact, the day before this incident was the day I reviewed my skills.  I’m glad I was prepared.”