Reagan player returns after near-death scare
Heart ailment led to his collapse at practice last January
For the past few months, Reagan High School basketball coach John Hirst made a habit of grabbing Kaeyel Moore by the shoulders and shaking him, just a little bit.
“Kaeyel freaking Moore. Man, I am glad you’re with us,” he’d say.
It was their routine. The kind that mothers and fathers do when their children leave the house — to make sure they are going to be OK.
It was how the player and coach found a way to be normal again after Moore collapsed during practice and went into cardiac arrest. He returned to the basketball court Monday for the first time in 10 months.
His return was just the way he wanted it — without celebration or a fuss over what he has accomplished.
He didn’t play much. It didn’t matter. Everything has changed since Jan 9.
That morning Moore was doing a standard, boring drill: dribbling left, then right as he made his way up the basketball court.
As he moved through the drills, he began to feel lightheaded.
Then there was nothing.
Moore fell, his face flattened on the floor and his arm pinned underneath him.
“At first, I thought, ‘C’mon we are not even warming up,’ ” Hirst said. “And here he was already tripping and falling down.”
Moore stayed down, though, his body at an angle that “didn’t look normal” to Hirst, who ran over and fell to his knees as he tried to figure out what was wrong with his player, hoping for a heartbeat. A pulse.
“I hesitated at first (to move him), but I thought a broken arm is better than choking to death,” Hirst said. “When I realized he wasn’t choking, I sent our seniors to go grab our trainer.”
Hirst can’t forget the sound of Moore trying to breathe.
Huuuh. Huuuh. Huuuh ... then a final exhale of air — whoosh.
When Reagan High athletic trainer Joe Martinez arrived seconds later, Moore didn’t have a pulse. Martinez began chest compressions and hooked Moore up to an automated external defibrillator (AED), a machine that monitors heart function and provides automated feedback. Moore began turning blue. The words flashed on the screen: shock advised.
Moore’s teammates went to the adjacent gym. They couldn’t watch anymore, and instead formed a prayer circle for their fallen friend.
“It was confusing but we were just hoping for the best at that point,” Reagan forward Toby Regus said.
Martinez placed the pads on Moore’s chest. Zap.
Nothing. He re-started compressions. Nothing.
Another round, then ... Thump. Thump. Moore’s heart was beating again.
He tried to sit upright, but Martinez and the student athletic trainers eased him back to the ground.
“I saw Coach Martinez and he was tapping me on the shoulder and asking if I could hear him,” Moore said. “I was trying to talk but it was just making a humming noise.”
Ten seconds later, he was coherent. Martinez had saved his life.
Two minutes after that, EMS walked through the doors. His mother, Lakisha Moore-Hamilton, meanwhile, was four hours away on a business trip.
“(Coach Hirst) called and let me me know and it was complete shock,” she said. “There was a lot of processing to do in that moment. The worst part for me was the drive, wondering what kind of condition he was going to be in. Thankfully, they let me talk to him as he was getting into the ambulance. He worked very hard to not let me be overly concerned.
“That was the clarifying moment for me. He was trying to protect me and when he did that I knew he was going to be OK.”
Technically, he wasn’t, though.
If only for just a second, Moore died on the basketball court that January morning.
His heart wasn’t beating. He wasn’t breathing.
“Just seeing him ... Just seeing him like that was terrible,” Hirst said. “It was the worst thing I have been through in my 26 years as a coach. You go through a lot of tragedies in young people’s lives, but it was the first time I have ever had someone in that situation and it was awful. Afterward you almost feel guilty. We did things right but you wonder what we could have done better beforehand.”
But, there wasn’t.
North East ISD athletes are required to pass a physical and health screenings before they can play. Moore was cleared to play. There was no way Hirst or anyone on his staff could have known what was going to happen that day.
“I have talked to those two so many times, but there is never enough I can say to thank them and to explain what they gave me back,” Hamilton-Moore said. “They know how tedious and unimportant training can seem. But, they used it. It is all about planing and preparation.
“It is fine to have an AED or folks trained. But, it is also important to have people that can put it into action. To think that quick. I don’t know how I will ever be able to express to them how much it means to me to have my child back.”
That’s why training is essential.
Hirst is like every other coach in the state of Texas. He doesn’t enjoy the time crunch or the hassle that comes with the training sessions the state or the University Interscholastic League mandate — from driving buses to more important measures like concussion protocols and the CPR training.
It is a hassle. It’s cumbersome. And 100 percent needed.
One Texas lawmaker is hopeful to pass legislation in the upcoming session “relating to cardiac assessments of high school participants in extracurricular athletic activities sponsored or sanctioned” by the UIL.
Rep Dan Huberty, R-Houston, filed the bill Monday, the first day for lawmakers to submit legislation they want to pass in the upcoming year.
In addition to already-required physical exams for students participating in UIL activities, the bill would also require an electrocardiogram or echocardiogram as part of their health assessment.
If the legislation is approved, districts would have the opportunity to partner with a nonprofit to cover the cost of the electrocardiograms or echocardiograms or to pick up the cost themselves. The tests would be required every two years.
Legislators filed a similar bill in 2015, but it did not make it into law that go around.
This time it needs to. For Moore. For everything he has gone through. And for anyone’s son or daughter who may need it in the future.
Fewer than 8 percent of those who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive, according to the American Heart Association. And 88 percent of all cardiac arrests occur at home.
That could have been Moore. But it wasn’t thanks to the quick reactions and properly trained staff at Reagan High School, his doctors and proper early testing.
“I am absolutely glad (training) is mandated . ... Did we not panic and not lose valuable time because we were trained? I have to think so,” Hirst said. “I am not that smart. The only reason things happened as quickly as we did on my part and all of our parts is because of the training. It is no different than us coaching and making players do the same boring things over and over.
“When you get in a critical situation you don’t have to think about it. It has to be second nature.”
Prior to that Tuesday, Martinez said Moore had shown no signs of a heart problem or experienced any similar issues. He had passed all the physicals and even taken the school-recomended EKGs the last two years.
He was healthy, there was nothing to fear. Or so they thought.
After the incident, Moore was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, a condition in which the lower chambers of the heart beat abnormally fast.
“Most of the time when you see your child hit the floor you fear that it could be a sprain or a broken bone. They used an AED to revive my son who collapsed on the floor,” Moore-Hamilton said.
“If I can tell parents anything it is take that extra step and go through the school process. Pediatricians do a great job, and athletic physicals are good, but the schools also offer EKGs and everyone needs to do them. You can’t detect everything, but the more we can do, the better off we are.”
Three days after after he collapsed, doctors implanted a subcutaneous defibrillator on Moore’s left side, just below his armpit. The device aims to detect life-threatening rapid heart rhythms.
Days later, Moore appeared at Blossom Athletic Center’s Littleton Gym, cheering from the bench as his team played against Reagan’s rival Johnson High School.
“Seeing him sit on the bench a week and a half later during pre-game warmups, man, every time, you say to your self or other coaches ‘Can you believe that guy is here?’ ” Hirst said. “You were just so relieved and happy and shocked. Every time we saw him we thought that.” On Monday, Moore did more than just cheer on his teammates. He played along side them.
“I wanted to get back into school and show everyone that I was all right and to not treat me any different than before it happened,” Moore said Monday. “I wanted to come back and play because I love the sport and all of my peers around me that were encouraging me.”
Regus said: “It is a huge comeback for him. He has been through so much and he is really happy to be back on the court.”
Though Moore played only for a couple of minutes in the first and fourth quarters of the 85-70 loss to Marshall, it’s doubtful he or his family cared.
“It is amazing, to know where were we 10 months ago,” his mother said. “Things could have ended so much differently. I have parents tell me that I can’t believe you’d let him play. … But, I knew that as soon as I walked into the hospital room the day it happened that the only thing that mattered to him was the varsity. He has worked really hard to get himself conditioned and be ready for today.”
Hirst and Martinez have their reservations as well.
“I was a little nervous with him coming back,” Martinez said, “but at the same time he has shown so much strength to want to do this and we fully support him. We are just happy he is getting to live out his senior year the way he wanted to.”
Hirst said he didn’t know if he would have been as brave as the Moores.
“If it was (my child) I would wrap him in bubble wrap,” he said. “But, his family is super supportive and we know they made the right decision. We have gotten clearance and we understand that mechanism works. … He doesn’t show any signs of concern. I think it is more on our part. He just wants to have a great senior year.
“And that is incredible. There is no other word.”
Saturday, Moore and his family participated in the 25th Anniversary Heart & Stroke Walk and 5K Heart Race. The family made shirts.
They celebrated. They started a new routine.
Monday, his family watched from the stands as he played basketball once again.
And, maybe, found a new normal.