Are you like me? Do you worry at the end of the day about things that just aren’t all that important? Do you remember what is REALLY important in your life and have your priorities straight?
Do you hug your spouse or significant other and your children or your parents and leave them with a positive thought each time you say goodbye or goodnight?
Do you remember to reach out to your family and friends, or do you just find that you are too busy and “will get to it eventually”?
All of these thoughts have more meaning to me today because of a recent incident involving a long-time friend and adult hockey league teammate.
Ken Moscone, Jr. is the Vice President of Operations of The Drucker Company, which manufactures centrifuges for use in medical, research, educational and industrial laboratories. He and I are about the same age, and we both have three children. (Mine are slightly older.)
His wife Sheila and their three boys — Daniel (15), Andrew (11) and Michael (9) — went through a pre-holiday scare that none of us ever wants to experience.
They almost lost Ken forever.
It was Sunday night, Dec. 6, and the game between the GeoHabs and the CCM team was well underway when GeoHabs veteran player Mark Williams noticed Ken was sweating more than usual and didn’t seem right. He turned to a teammate and, when he looked back, Ken was slumped over and unresponsive.
Mark and the rest of the GeoHabs immediately got the attention of longtime referee Jay Horgas, who skated off the ice to alert the ice rink staff (Andrew Snyder, Rob Edwards, and Vince Chandler, and Chris Whittemore) Meanwhile, players Jim Leous, Tim White, A.C. Cawthern and John McCauley, began performing CPR and mouth to mouth until the rink staff arrived quickly with the AED (Automated External Defibrillator).
An AED essentially uses electrical therapy to allow a heart to regain a normal rhythm. They’re easy enough to use that most states include the “Good Faith” use of an AED by any person under the Good Samaritan laws. They’re portable and effective, but the chances of surviving this kind of a heart attack are very slim, even with the AED.
After a quick ambulance ride to Mt. Nittany Medical Center, Ken was life-flighted to Geisinger. Ken was not very responsive until someone told him that he scored a “hat trick.” Ken opened his eyes and said “I did!” Then he wanted to know if his team won or lost and if the next game was held up because of what happened. That’s Ken.
This positive outcome would no doubt have been different if it weren’t for local heroes like John, Tim, A.C., Jay, Mark, and the ice rink staff.
I want to personally thank Athletic Director Tim Curley, former Associate AD Herb Schmidt, and Ice Rink Manager Chris Whittemore for making the funds available and for making it a priority for AEDs to be housed in all athletic facilities. The machines are not cheap, and this commitment to safety is a great customer service that no one should take for granted.
I spoke with Sheila Moscone the morning I wrote this column. The same Sheila is a cardiac nurse by trade and has trained and served a lot of Centre County residents over the years. She said Ken is better and, after a short relapse, he is back to being the same old Ken we all know and love from the rink.
Well, not exactly. Ken is literally a changed man (he’s lost 20 lbs.), has had successful bypass surgery and his heart is ready to tick well into the future.
Sheila asked me to include a special “Thank you” to the Mount Nittany Hospital Emergency Room staff for everything they did and a special thanks to all the hockey families that just came in and took over the care of her boys.
“The hockey world is a very special group of families,” she pointed out.
She also told me that her hectic schedule had her traveling all over the area catching up on Christmas shopping, but her youngest son, Mikey, told her they didn’t need anything more than their dad with a bow on his head next to the tree. That was the best present of all!
From the Battista Family — Heidi, Joe, Brianna, Jonathon, and Ryan:
We wish you all a very merry Christmas, a blessed holiday season, and a very happy and healthy 2010!
