THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 8, 1995 TAG: 9505080130
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
Two days after her heart stopped beating and paramedics had to resuscitate her in the hallway outside her bedroom while her parents looked on, terrified, Amber Davis awoke in a hospital bed and was able to speak.
She asked for something to drink. And then she asked to leave. Insisted she had to leave, to play softball.
``All she kept saying was, `I have a scrimmage game today,' '' said Chris Davis, Amber's mother.
Amber, a 16-year-old sophomore, missed that scrimmage, on March 11th, but has since returned to the softball field for Booker T. Washington High.
No one who knows her well is surprised that Amber is back. Softball has been her obsession since she was 8, when she dropped dance class ``right before she had to dress up as a pineapple,'' recalled Chris Davis.
``That's all she talks about . . . softball, softball,'' said Amber's father, Tom Davis.
That Amber lives for softball is fine with Tom and Chris. Every day, they thank God, Amber's doctors, and the Norfolk paramedics who responded so quickly for the miracle that Amber lives.
``Dr. (Carlos) Silva said, `I'm going to plain tell you, your daughter died. Twice,' '' Chris Davis said.
Doctors are not certain what caused Amber's attack. What they do know is that she beat tremendous odds. Dr. John Herre, a cardiac electro-physiologist who treated Amber, said that less than three percent of people who are resuscitated ever leave the hospital, let alone play softball.
Amber remembers nothing of what happened just before dawn on March 9th, which fortunately was a Thursday. If it had been a Saturday, Chris keeps telling herself, she would not have gone in to wake Amber for school.
Chris woke about five minutes to six, to the sound of moans coming from Amber's room. Chris thought Amber was playing with the family's new puppy.
``I thought, good, she's already awake, because she's a bear to wake up in the morning,'' Chris said.
Amber wasn't awake, though. She was unconscious, and getting one breath about every 15 seconds. She was in cardiac arrest.
``When we rolled her over, her fingers were blue,'' Chris said.
Paramedics responded to the 911 call in 2 1/2 minutes. They started CPR, put a breathing tube in her throat and started an I.V. They worked on her for 30 long minutes and used ``shock paddles'' at the house to revive her once.
Amber was taken to DePaul Hospital, where she ``coded'' again and had to be revived a second time.
Doctors did a CAT scan to see if there was any brain damage from the loss of oxygen. There wasn't. X-rays showed shadows on her lungs, which were filled with fluid.
Chris was told that Amber's heart had revved like a car engine - to 300 beats per minute - and then crashed.
``It was just barely beating,'' Chris said.
Doctors did every test available, and still couldn't come up with a firm diagnosis. Once Amber was stabilized, Herre surgically implanted a defibrillator/pacemaker just below her collarbone.
The device, about the size of a beeper, is designed to prevent another attack. If Amber's heart rate rises to 215 beats per minute, the defibrillator will administer an electric current to regulate her heartbeat. If her heart rate slows to 40 beats per minute, the pacemaker kicks in.
``This device is about 99 percent effective at stopping cardiac arrest,'' Herre said.
Herre believes Amber's attack may have been caused by something called Long QT Syndrome, an abnormality of the electrical system of the heart.
``Those people are prone to sudden death,'' Herre said. ``We know little enough about it to be able to prevent it. The defibrillator is not designed to prevent it but to correct it quickly when it occurs.''
Long QT is relatively rare, and many people who have it never know it.
``Many people have the event and die,'' Herre said. ``She was very lucky. She almost died.''
Herre cleared Amber to play sports again, and says she should not have any problems.
``I think she'll do fine,'' Herre said. ``I do think she is protected.''
Amber certainly isn't worried. She's eager to put the whole thing behind her, to ease back into the routine of school and softball.
``Everybody worries more than me,'' she said. ``My coach. The school nurse. She acts like she's my parents.''
Sitting on the couch of the Davis' living room, Amber pulls her T-shirt down a hair below her collarbone to reveal the only visible sign of her attack, a three-inch scar where the defibrillator/pacemaker was implanted.
Once every four years the device will need fresh batteries, and Amber will be operated on again.
And, ``If she goes through an airport (metal detector) she's going to beep,'' Chris said.
Amber tosses a baseball absentmindedly and the conversation turns to softball, and whether Amber will play this summer, after school is over.
``I'm playing,'' she says to her father. ``You need to sign me up.''
This is news to Tom.
``Azalea Garden?'' he asks.
``Yes. Sign me up.''
Since the attack, the family has become closer. Amber and her 12-year-old brother, Andy, don't argue as much. Tom, who recently retired from the Navy and works at a service station, now works only the day shift so someone can be home when Amber is home. Chris, a nurse, works evenings at Lafayette Villa, a nursing home.
The only exercise Amber was allowed after first returning home was walking, and the first time she went out with her father she told him: ``Dad, you talk too much.''
Tom just wanted to know his daughter was OK, and knew that if she was talking, she was breathing.
When Amber returned to Booker T., ``everybody greeted me at the door,'' she said.
School officials offered to have somebody carry her books for her. Someone suggested Amber consider transferring to a school that has an elevator, but Amber wouldn't hear of it.
Cleared to ride a bike, Amber rode until a tire went flat. She persuaded Tom to take her to a batting cage a couple weeks ago ``and she was killing the ball,'' he said.
Amber was itching to get back to the team, but school officials needed medical clearance, plus a liability release from Amber's parents. Once they got those, Amber was cleared to play.
She returned Monday and has been at practice a week. Coach Paul Palombo had planned to use her as a pinch hitter in Thursday's win over Norview, but the game ended before she got up. Booker T.'s next game is Tuesday, at home against Maury.
``The first time I saw her at the hospital, you would have never thought she'd be back,'' Palombo said. ``She's worked so hard at getting back - she deserves it.''
Amber was working on her riser pitch before she went to the hospital. She's Booker T.'s backup pitcher as well as a utility infielder.
``She's got a great attitude, and she's a good player,'' Palombo said. ``We had to start her at about 20 to 30 percent of what everybody else is doing, because we're still concerned.''
``She's a fighter,'' Tom said. ``She's a lot tougher than I thought she was.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Richard L. Dunston
An abnormality in Amber Davis' heart may have caused the attack.
by CNB