Athletic trainer at APS high school saves soccer coach who was having medical emergency

Athletic trainer at APS high school saves soccer coach who was having medical emergency
Athletic trainers are typically expected to help out athletes whenever they get hurt but at one high school they had to help a coach during a medical emergency. “I think, man, everything’s kind of fast and kind of blurred together,” said Enrique Ochoa.

For Ochoa, being an athletic trainer has been his dream. “I feel like I’ve always just had a desire to help people in their time of need, whether it’s a flat tire on the road or like it was on Saturday for a medical emergency,” said Ochoa.

October 19 was just like any other day for him. “So we were just setting up, you know what I mean, I was setting up coolers and my kits and everything that I use when I’m working,” Ochoa said.

Then one of the JV soccer coaches, John Cuarda, started to have a medical emergency. “So immediately, I was about ten, 15 feet away, so immediately I grabbed my jump bag, and my jump bag is basically my emergency kit, it has all my emergency supplies and the AED,” said Ochoa.

Ochoa started to render aid with the AED which helps those suffering from cardiac arrest. A nearby referee and bystander jumped in to help. “I had a referee was there, came in, said, hey, I’m CPR certified, I can help. I said, start compressions, that way they can kind of get going,” said Ochoa, “but I imagine, I think we did two cycles of CPR before I heard like a gasp from coach.”

The coach was taken to the hospital and is recovering. Ochoa is grateful so many people were able to help out. “Thank god we had a lot of people to help out, you know what I mean? To open up gates and stuff like that, so that way the ambulance could park really close so they didn’t have to walk very far,” said Ochoa.

Ochoa believes everyone should be CPR-certified. “You never know when someone’s going to need that kind of help. And you can save a life or at least preserve a life till the ambulance gets there,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa said he would like to see more AEDs available in both schools and in public places.