SIMPSONVILLE — Former NFL quarterback and South Carolina Gamecocks star Connor Shaw collapsed into sudden cardiac arrest while coaching his son’s flag football game at Gracely Park in Simpsonville on Sept. 17.
Shaw, 34, was celebrating with his team after they scored when he began feeling nauseous. He handed his playbook to an assistant coach, telling him he wasn’t feeling well, then collapsed.
“I’m making my way over to our sideline to talk to our assistant coach and like, hey, man, I’m not feeling good. I hand him the playbook. And that’s when I collapsed into sudden cardiac arrest.”
Caleb Carter, a Simpsonville firefighter coaching his own son’s team on the same field, rushed to Shaw’s aid after another parent alerted him to the emergency.
“I was on this field coaching my son’s team, and I called a play for offense and stepped on the sidelines and one of the mom’s on the team told me, Hey that guy over there just collapsed,” Carter said.
Carter performed CPR on Shaw for five minutes before other responders arrived with an automated external defibrillator. When medics arrived, they used the AED to deliver an electric shock to restore Shaw’s heart rhythm.
Shaw said a police officer named Zach also helped during the emergency.
According to the American Heart Association, more than 400,000 Americans die from cardiac arrest every year. Patients who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting have a 10% chance of surviving, but CPR or an AED can double or triple a person’s likelihood of living.
“Very thankful, and it was a miracle that I was able to survive it,” Shaw said.
Shaw’s wife was eight months pregnant at the time of his cardiac arrest. The couple has since welcomed their fourth child.
“My wife still has her moments, and so do I, of just the overwhelming sense of gratitude and how close I was, not to meet my new son last Monday and have my kids go through life without a dad, which is just a real thing,” Shaw said.
Shaw now wears a Medtronic EV-ICD device under his armpit that can detect sudden cardiac arrest and treat it.
“So for whatever reason, there’s an electrical malfunction, it would send the pulse. And if I were to go into V-fib again, then it would shock me,” Shaw said.
Despite extensive testing, doctors have not determined why Shaw’s heart stopped beating.
“I’ve had echoes and EKG tests. I don’t have any underlying heart conditions. I’ve had, you know, post-genetics testing since this incident. You know, I don’t have any heart disease or where it’s going to be passed down to my kids,” Shaw said. “But to answer your question, no, this was just a very sudden thing.”
Shaw has started an initiative called hrthudl.org to get AEDs in as many parks and athletic fields as possible and encourage people to learn CPR.
“And I reference Mark 16 and 15, where you go preach to all creation,” Shaw said. “Hrthudle is going to be a conduit to do that and hear about more survivor stories and to praise his name because of it,” Shaw said.
Shaw said he believes his cardiac arrest happened for a reason and credits Carter with saving his life.
Full interviews with Connor Shaw, Caleb Carter and a cardiologist studying sudden cardiac arrest in athletes will be available Tuesday on The Wellness Files with Kari Beal podcast on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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