‘Amazing’ fans helped save man at game after he had a heart attack
Donald Stampley is a huge J.J. Watt fan, but the Texans star took a backseat for Stampley on Sunday.
A little more than a month after suffering a heart attack in the stands at NRG Stadium, the 56year-old Magnolia resident returned to the stadium for the Texans’ home opener and was greeted by the stadium’s paramedics and doctors who helped save his life that night.
“I don’t think J.J. could have done what they done,” he said, pointing to the group of smiling paramedics and medical personnel surrounding him in the NRG Stadium tunnel before the Texans’ game against the Giants on Sunday.
During a Texans preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers on Aug. 18, Stampley said he felt unusually tired but didn’t think much of it until he passed out in his seat in the second row.
Stampley’s wife, Angel, plead-
ed for help, but fans nearby already had spotted Stampley slumped in his seat.
“Someone sitting behind us immediately started doing CPR on him,” Angel said. “We had people sitting all around us saying, ‘I’m a nurse’ or ‘I’m a doctor,’ and they were jumping in to help right away. To have bystanders do that is just amazing.”
As fans worked to help Stampley, a security guard rushed to alert doctors on the Texans sidelines.
Dr. Cameron Decker, the medical director at Harris County Emergency Corps, left his usual spot on the field near the Texans bench and ran to Stampley, climbing the 8-foot wall that separates fans from the field.
Decker said the fans in Stampley’s section deserve the credit for saving his life because of the work they did before doctors and paramedics were able to get to him.
“When we got there, it was clear he had suffered a significant heart attack,” Decker said. “But he wasn’t pulseless, and his heart was beating, but he was very, very ill at that point.”
Stampley was wheeled out of the stadium and taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he was placed in the cardiac ICU.
“I woke up six or seven days later, and the first people I saw was the two paramedics standing at my bed,” Stampley said. “I saw them before I saw my wife.”
Stampley said he was told in the hospital that if he had suffered that heart attack anywhere else — even at home — he likely wouldn’t have survived.
Decker says it’s hard to say but can’t dispute that Stampley was fortunate to be seated so close to the field that night.
“I can tell you he was a lot better off being in the second row than he would have been if he had been in the 15th row,” Decker said.
When Stampley returned to NRG Stadium on Sunday, he was greeted with an autographed J.J. Watt jersey to replace the one he was wearing on the night of the heart attack.
Stampley said he wouldn’t mind having Decker and everyone who helped him that night adding their signature to his new jersey.
“There is no other feeling like this,” Decker said. “This is exactly why I became a physician, why our medics became paramedics. It’s the opportunity to save a life or at least be a part of saving someone’s life; it’s an experience like no other.”
“I can tell you he was a lot better off being in the second row than he would have been if he had been in the 15th row.”
Dr. Cameron Decker, the medical director at Harris County Emergency Corps