8-Year-Old Boy Revived After Suffering Cardiac Arrest During Ball Game

An 8-year-old boy playing in a Rohnert Park Cal Ripken Baseball League game Saturday afternoon was struck in the chest with a pitch shortly before 3:34 p.m. at Colegio Vista Park. He took a few steps toward first base and then collapsed on the field, according to the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety.

Luckily, two people with emergency training happened to be in the stands watching the baseball game. Dan Farren, a fire captain and paramedic with the Petaluma Fire Department and a paramedic Sue Farren, an executive with the Faulk ambulance service, rushed to the boy’s side.

He was unresponsive, so they started performing CPR until the Rohnert Park Public Department of Safety Officers and an ambulance from Sonoma Life Support arrived on the scene.

Public Safety Officer Brandon Davidge used a defibrillator to deliver one shock to the boy, and he regained consciousness a short time later. He was transported to a local hospital where he was stabilized and then flown to Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

These types of incidents are few and far between, but show the benefit of having community members trained in CPR, said Aaron Johnson, the director of operations for the Rohnert Park Cal Ripken Baseball League, and a sergeant with the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety. The fact that the Farens gave immediate CPR likely saved the boy’s life, he said, and he wishes him a speedy recovery.

The name of the boy and his family are being withheld at this time due to his age and medical privacy concerns.