In the bottom of the fourth inning of a softball game between Allentown (Pa.) Central Catholic and Dieruff High Schools on Wednesday night at Patriots Park, the base umpire collapsed and suffered a heart attack on the field.
According to The Morning Call, umpire Mark Weil had just returned to the field after grabbing a jacket from his car when he began to feel tingling in his chest and broke out in a sweat. As he collapsed, Danielle Vogt, Dieruff High School’s certified athletic trainer, jumped into action.
Vogt brought a defibrillator to the scene while paramedics were called. She administered CPR and coordinated others who jumped in to help, including Dieruff softball coach Brianna Knipe and a parent from the stands.
“I was just given an opportunity to do my job,” said Vogt. “It’s a good opportunity for everyone to be CPR-certified, if they’re able to get certified. You never know when you’re going to be in that kind of situation. So, if you have the opportunity to get certified, it would be awesome if you did it because you just never know when a situation like this is going to come up. There are definitely enough people around to get you certified.”
Thanks to Vogt’s quick response, Weil was stabilized and regained consciousness prior to being transported to the hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery and said he was “thankful of the immediate help he received.”
“It was crazy and it still hasn’t really hit me yet,” said Dieruff coach Knipe. “We had a meeting with our girls to talk it over and make sure they are all OK. It took some time for it to hit all of us how serious it was. A lot of things happened so quickly and I feel like 30 seconds actually felt more like 40 minutes. I was the first person out there to him and at first you want to see if he was OK, which he obviously wasn’t. I saw him fall, so obviously you knew something wasn’t right.”
Throughout the incident, Knipe and coaches from Central Catholic secluded the student-athletes behind the bleachers and made the decision to end the game which Central was leading 13-1.
While Vogt humbly insists she was just doing her job, Jim Corpora, a longtime official and umpire in the area was insistent as he said, “There’s no question the Dieruff trainer saved his [Weil’s] life.”
