Defibrillator saves life of Perry grappler Rice
Senior recovering from Thursday's heart surgery
By CHRIS METCALF
The Daily News (Batavia, NY)
Friday, January 20, 2006

Full Text: Copyright © 2006 The Daily News.
Reproduced with the permission of Batavia Newspapers Corporation.

Thanks to some quick response from some outstanding people ― and a defibrillator ― Perry's Ben Rice is still with us today.

Rice, a standout wrestler for the Yellowjackets, had been sitting in the stands after winning his 215-pound quarterfinal match 12-6 at last Saturday's Franklinville Tournament, when his heart stopped beating and he slipped into an unresponsive state.

The senior wrestler from Perry, known for his incredible physical fitness regimen, was not breathing.

A trainer was on scene but she could get no pulse, and with that there was no heartbeat.

CPR began ― no response.

It didn't look good. About a minute later, because of some quick-thinking and well-trained folks in the Franklinville gymnasium, a defibrillator was placed on his chest.

Ben's heart started to respond.

A defibrillator is used to restore a normal heart rhythm by delivering an electrical shock to the heart when the heartbeat is dangerously fast due to ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Either of these conditions can be life-threatening, possibly causing the heart to abruptly cease pumping blood to the body (cardiac arrest) and a person to lose consciousness.

During the 30 or so seconds that it took to spark Ben's heart, he had slipped into a dream ― a dream where he was drowning.

We've all seen the movies where someone dies and they are dreaming about drowning. Well, this exact same thing happened to Ben. He was dreaming that people were pulling him into the water.

But no lifesaver was thrown in to save Ben ― it was a defibrillator that did the trick.

Thank God a law was put in that requires all schools to have a defibrillator. If not, Ben would not be with us today. That law, to be quite honest, saved his life. Doctors afterwards said that CPR would not have been enough to save him ― he needed that defibrillator.

Ben's condition was something he was born with. Sometimes that is very hard to accept ― especially for someone who looks as if he was cut out of granite like Ben does.

There are fancy medical terms for what happened to Ben, but in simpler terms, Ben's arteries were not getting enough blood flow to his heart.

On Thursday, Ben had a three-hour double-bypass surgery that will start him on to a six- to- eight-month recovery process.

I spoke with his father Thursday night and he told me that Ben was doing fine in the intensive care unit an that he should be out in a couple of days.

"The doctors said that it was a successful surgery," said Steve Rice, Ben's father. "There was a little more to it than originally thought but everything went fine."

He is not out of the woods just yet, although everyone that knows Ben knows all too well about his passion for life. It's that mentality that is going to help him with his recovery process.

Ironically, before all of this happened, I was in the midst of doing a story on Ben and his dreams of getting to the state wrestling tournament. I had already done all of my legwork on the story.

That dream won't happen ― but neither will his dream on drowning ― and we all know which dream he would much rather have come true.

Ben, who has 101 varsity wins and captured his first-ever Genesee Valley Tournament two weeks ago, had a solid chance of making it to states.

Not anymore. But that's OK ― we'd all much rather have him alive and well.

"Ben led by example," said his coach, George West. "He wasn't a noisy guy. He worked hard and people followed him. He has that hard work mentality ― a very polite person. A dedicated athlete. I am just so thankful that we still have him."

I would like to take this final moment to thank everyone that is responsible for Ben being with us today.

People like Melissa O'Brien. Her skills save a life ― a life we all want around for plenty of years to come.

Coach West, Ben's teammates and several parents also helped with this special cause. Their quick response saved his life.

When it could have been very easy to push the panic button when Ben slipped away from us, they never flinched, not even for a moment. They maintained their composure and the end result kept Ben with us today.

Now that's a positive story.

(Chris Metcalf is sports editor of the Livingston County News, a Batavia Newspapers Corporation publication.)