A Florida mom had the most harrowing experience of her life late last month after she went to Disney World in Orlando with her family only for her son to pass out on a ride.
Christine Tagle was at Disney World in the Central Florida city on September 21 with her family, when they all boarded the Guardians of the Galaxy ride in the park. But just seconds after the ride started, her 5-year-old son Ernesto Tagle III, who was sitting next to her in the car, fell unconscious and went completely limp.
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As Christine recounted in a Facebook post after the fact, she “couldn’t wake him up” through the entirety of the ride. And she grew increasingly frantic when she realized that something was very, very wrong.
OMG!!
When the ride finally ended, Christine noted that she “screamed for help” to resuscitate the boy. Her husband, Ernesto Tagle Jr., rushed off to find somebody who might be able to help while staff members ran in with an automated external defibrillator (AED) to try to rouse the child.
Amazingly, a couple nearby was comprised of an off-duty nurse and a paramedic, and they along with Disney World staff members laid the boy down in a hallway and began giving him CPR. The AED was also used to restart the child’s heart. Christine recounted how everyone involved was heroic especially after her son began having seizures at that point:
“When the ride was over, I pulled him out screaming for help, the staff directed me to a hallway where I laid my son down and I began CPR — a few seconds later the staff shocked him with the AED. My husband ran out to find help and found a couple — a nurse and an EMT – who continued CPR, kept him stable as he began to have seizures until EMT services came.”
First responders then arrived quickly, and they continued to stabilize the boy. Ernesto was eventually taken to a local hospital in a helicopter, too — where he survived!!!
Amazing!
After little Ernesto was stabilized, doctors began running “test after test” to determine what could have happened, according to Chrstine. Eventually, they figured out that he suffers from a genetic heart condition called catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, which is also known as CTVT. Apparently, it flared up during the family trip to Disney World and rendered him unconscious just as that Guardians of the Galaxy ride began.
Thankfully, following emergency surgery at the hospital, Ernesto has recovered well! His father and namesake noted in a social media post that the boy is already asking about going home to ride his motor bike. And the dad also begged others to get CPR certified just in case the worst may happen:
“I’m happy to say that Ernesto is doing well after surgery with no signs of brain or heart damage. Even better this warrior is already home and already asking to ride his motorcycle. Get CPR certified or get a refresher course. You never know when you’ll need it.”
Christine echoed that at the end of her original Facebook post, too. She wrote glowingly of the couple who stepped in to help in those critical moments before first responders were able to get there and whisk the boy away to safety:
“My son lived because when his (now we know) genetic heart disease presented itself we were at Disney where there is an AED everywhere. My son is alive because we were at Disney with trained staff. My son is alive because of this couple. My son is alive because I was a trained in CPR (parents PLEASE PLEASE get trained if you aren’t).”
Ernesto’s dad summed that sentiment up perfectly to cap it, too:
“Not all heroes wear capes.”
Awww.
We are so, so, SO glad that he survived this awful ordeal — and that it sounds like he is going to come through it OK!!
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