A six-year-old boy was saved by his quick-thinking mother after he went into cardiac arrest in the middle of a baseball game.
Oscar Stuebe suffered from commotio cordis, the same rare condition that nearly killed NFL player Damar Hamlin, when he was hit by a baseball on March 10.
His mother Sarah Stuebe rushed onto the field and, along with another parent, gave him CPR – which had to be administered within three minutes.
Oscar was filling in for his seven-year-old brother’s Little League team in Lake Worth, Florida, when he tried to catch a fly ball in centerfield but was hit in the chest.
Oscar Stuebe suffered commotio cordis when he was hit in the chest by a baseball
Oscar’s mother Sarah Stuebe (right) gave him CPR on the field and saved his life after his father Riley (left) called for her
He immediately collapsed to the ground and his father Riley ran to help.
“At first it looked like he was losing the wind, but within seconds Riley and the other coaches on the field realized it was more serious,” Sarah wrote online.
Riley made a panicked phone call to his wife and she called 911 before handing her phone to a friend to explain the situation and running to her son.
“I will never forget how Riley screamed my name,” she wrote.
Sarah, a nurse, saw Oscar having a seizure and having trouble breathing, and neither she nor Riley could find a heartbeat.
‘Everything was stiff. His fingers were stiff, his hands were stiff, his arms were stiff. You could tell he had no control over his body,” Riley said NBC.
Sarah added: “He became lifeless. His eyes rolled into the back of his head. He turned gray. He started gasping for air.”
Oscar was rushed to St Mary’s Medical Center and released home after five days
Oscar played baseball at another game last year
His mother began CPR for about two minutes before a parent from a game on the adjacent field took over until paramedics arrived.
Oscar was rushed to St Mary’s Medical Center and woke up the next day delirious and hallucinating and did not sleep again until 5pm the following evening.
‘Sleep was apparently the best medicine. He woke up and said, “Hello, Mom!” And it was him,” Sarah said.
Oscar’s parents didn’t leave his bed and were still wearing the clothes they wore to the baseball game two days earlier.
After a few days of physical therapy, he was released from the hospital and sent home, where Sarah’s family had come in to care for Oscar’s three brothers.
Oscar is back to his old self, and he and his brothers will wear chest protectors when they play, even if it’s just in the backyard.
Sarah said that baseball and lacrosse are the two sports with the highest risk of commotio cordis, and that all children who play these sports should wear them.
Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin nearly died from the same condition when he was hit in the chest during a tackle against the Cincinnati Bengals on January 2, 2023.
Like Oscar, Hamlin’s life was saved after undergoing CPR on the field, and he made a comeback to the NFL last season
The extremely rare condition only occurs if the heart is hit hard enough during a 40 millisecond period in the cardiac cycle.
CPR must be administered within about three minutes or the patient has only a five percent chance of survival.
“As a lacrosse player for most of my life and as a current coach, I have seen this happen a few times,” one commenter wrote on Sarah’s Instagram post.
“Sometimes I was able to get to my teammate and start CPR, other times another player and parent started.”
Sarah encouraged all parents to get CPR training so they could be prepared if something similar happened.