Updated at 11:37 a.m., Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Preps: Indiana pitcher nearly killed by baseball
By Diana Lamirand
The Indianapolis Star
Max Zhang dropped to the ground immediately after getting struck by the pitch Saturday in the Wooden Bat Classic tournament in Fortville, said Terry McGlothlin, who coaches Zhang's travel baseball team.
"He was pretty much dead when he hit the ground and the cardiologist saved him," McGlothlin said Tuesday.
Max was treated at Hancock Memorial Hospital then transferred to the intensive care unit at St. Vincent Children's Hospital. He was released yesterday.
The cardiologist, Dr. Douglas Segar of Carmel, was watching his own son play in another baseball game at the tournament when he heard cries for help. He ran over to Max, along with two or three women who were registered nurses, and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"Max's eyes rolled up into his head, a little bit of white stuff was coming from his mouth, his heart wasn't beating and he wasn't breathing," McGlothlin said. "They saved his life."
Segar said Max suffered commotio cordis — defined as sudden death due to ventricular fibrillation when a baseball or other projectile strikes the external surface overlying the heart. The condition happens rarely, he said, and the victim must be breathing a certain way, the heart must be beating on a down beat and the ball must strike in just the right spot on the chest for it to occur.
It happens about 20 times a year, the cardiologist said, and only 10 percent of victims survive.
Segar and the nurses performed CPR on Max for at least 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived and emergency workers shocked Max's heart with an automatic external defibrillator, McGlothlin said.
"It just seemed like it was forever," the coach said. Segar got Max's heart beating three times but the teen was still gasping for air and his eyes remained rolled back, McGlothlin said.
Segar downplayed his effort to save Max.
"I was in the right place at the right time and just doing what I've been trained to do," said the cardiologist. "His dad called me last night (Sunday) and thanked me. It's every parent's worst nightmare.
"I consider us very fortunate that everything worked out well," Segar said.
Segar said Max woke up during the ambulance ride wanting to know what happened and asking for his dad. In the hospital, McGlothlin said, the first thing Max asked his dad was the score of the game.
