Ben - What if?
In April my son, Ben, was diagnosed with a coronary artery anomoly that they find in children who experience sudden death in as young as 7, 8, 9 years old. In July, he had corrective open heart surgery. He is almost 2 months post-op and back to playing like a normal 8 year old boy. Since then, we have been dedicated to ensuring AED machines are posted throughout the communtiy, per Massachusetts law. We are new to traveling to the fields in the community, but we are slowly discovering that some fields are not equipped with an AED. Prior to our son's diagnosis, you would never pick him out of a line up of kids and say "that one will experience cardiac arrest". The scary part of this is that it could happen to anyone. The condition is not rare; finding it is. Having an AED available for these kids greatly increases their chances of survival during the chance of one of these events. We would like to have one installed at the upper HS field #7. And probably need more for other locations as we learn about their absence. Thank you for your time and consideration for the betterment of our youth athletes (and their family members cheering on the sidelines).