Team of Docs Playing Heart Heroes

STEVEN Domalewski, the New Jersey Little Leaguer whose heart stopped when a line drive slammed into his chest, has some angels in his outfield.

Today, a team of elite doctors from Philadelphia, Washington and New York is going to try to help Steven.

“They’re going to evaluate him to see if he’s a candidate for some new drug that would reverse some of the damage” his heart and brain have suffered since he collapsed on the pitcher’s mound June 6, his aunt Arlene Gentile said.

The Wayne, N.J., 12-year-old was trying to help his team, Tomaskovic’s Challengers, get to the playoffs when he was hit and went down in the fourth inning.

Three spectators at the game rushed onto the field and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the seventh-grader before he was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson and put on life support.

It’s unclear how much brain damage Steven sustained but he astounded neurologists by blinking and wiggling his toes when they asked.

It’s been harder for the boy to come out of a medically induced coma, his aunt said.

“They’re bringing him out of it slowly. He’s having a hard time,” Gentile said.

Doctors said Steven suffered from a rare type of cardiac arrest known as commotio cordis. It occurs mostly in children and adolescents when the chest is struck a hard blow right over the heart at a precise interval between beats.

Just 15% of the 170 people who have suffered a case of commotio cordis have been resuscitated, according to the U.S. Commotio Cordis Registry.

The A-Rod-idolizing, spunky Yankees fan has a large supportive family and his entire town rooting for his recovery. His parents and older sister have been at his bedside since he was hurt.

Gentile said her family is thrilled that top doctors have taken an interest in Steven’s case.

“When it’s your kid,” she said, “you want God himself in there.”

Source: New York Daily News