Parents thankful good Samaritans helped 5-year-old son with rare heart condition after passing out at Disney World – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale
ORLANDO, FLA. (WSVN) – There was a scare at a theme park in Orlando when a little boy passed out on a Disney ride. Luckily for the boy, some good Samaritans at the parked performed a lifesaving act.
Ernesto and Christine Tagle already knew their 5-year-old son, Ernesto, was special.
“Full of life and full of energy, always since he was in the womb,” Christine said.
Doctors confirmed it as well after they recently diagnosed him with a rare heart condition known as CVCT.
“When the heart is like beating too much, like he’ll go into an arrhythmia,” she said.
The family had no clue until they went on recent trip to Disney, where Ernesto passed out mere seconds into the “Guardians of the Galaxy” rollercoaster ride.
“Had ridden the ride before, so I really didn’t understand what was going on,” she said. “We had to complete the ride, like there’s no way to stop it or get off of it.”
Christine said by then, she could barely make out a pulse.
“I was screaming,” she said. “He was sitting in front of me. I know that I was hitting him and just saying, something’s wrong.”
Christine said she started CPR after the ride.
A couple that passed by, who happened to be a nurse and an ETT, jumped in to help because Ernesto started having seizures
A Disney employee grabbed an AED machine to shock his heart to get it beating again before he was taken to the hospital.
“We’re just glad everything worked the way it did,” Ernesto Jr. said. “Worked out the rapid and we can’t be the people that helped us enough.”
Little Ernesto has since had surgery to get a defibrillator, and thankfully, there was no neurological damage.
He used to play baseball, run and swim but life is a slow for now.
“Maybe 30 minutes from the hospital, he was like, ‘Can I go outside and play and ride my motorcycle?’” Ernesto said.
Mom and dad said they are thankful that so many people were in the right place to help.
“Everyone knows his smile and everybody knows his like just little full of life, and we just feel so lucky that this didn’t rob ups of that,” Christine said.
The family was able to track down those who jumped in to help their son and thanked them.
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