Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School Your bridge to the future… Your gateway to success.
Colleagues,
We are honored to share an amazing story (copied below) of Upper Cape Tech’s athletic trainers saving a man’s life at a game. No one wakes up thinking it will be their day to save a life, but when the moment happened, two Upper Cape athletic trainers were prepared.
David
| Upper Cape athletic trainers save a man’s life at a game | ||
|
Upper Cape athletic trainers recognized after split-second action at a game saves a life
Allen Gunn / Cape Cod Times
BOURNE — No one wakes up thinking they’ll need to have their life saved. Spencer Kamara owes his to the Upper Cape trainers Ross Talpey and Michaela Moran, and the Atlantis Charter EMT after he collapsed in the stands and went into cardiac arrest of the Rams’ football game at Mass Maritime Academy on November 1st.
The three immediately sprang into action and performed life-saving treatment on the 21-year-old, including the use of a defibrillator, before other medics arrived.
“All I can do is thank everybody that helped me out,” Kamara said. “Without them, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”
Talpey and Moran were honored for their heroics—and reunited with Kamara—at halftime of the Rams’ comeback 40-32 win over South Shore on Saturday.
Massachusetts House of Representatives member Steven Xiarhos was on hand to present the two with framed declarations of gratitude from all 160 representatives.
Talpey and Moran didn’t need thanks though, they did what they were trained to do.
“It was one of those surreal moments, you never really think about it happening,” Talpey said. “For a lack of a better term, it was go time. We knew what we had to do, and we executed it.”
Talpey is a trained National Guard infantry mortarman, who was last deployed to Jordan and Syria in 2022 and 2023 and has seen people at their worst. It’s his duty to help.
Everyone was walking off the sidelines at halftime, where the seniors were being celebrated when they heard a big slam. “It’s a moment you never want to happen, but when it does, we know we’ve prepared ourselves for situations like that,” Moran said. “It couldn’t have happened in a better place with all the people with paramedic backgrounds in the stands.”
Kamara underwent tests when he got to the hospital, including genetic testing and MRIs. He also underwent surgery and remained in care for five days.
“I’m fortunate I was in a spot where I could get help and get help fast,” he said. Now it’s the road to recovery.
That started with being back in the stands to watch his brother Cameron play his final home game for the Rams. Kamara then had the chance to walk out on the field with Cameron and the rest of his family at halftime where the Rams’ seniors were honored. It was then that he was able to share an embrace and a smile with Talpey and Moran.
“The most important part from all of this was that he (Kamara) had a positive outcome, ”Talpey said. “He’s back to life as it is, and some things might have changed, but he was wake up the next day.”
Prepared for the worst, hope it never happens
Upper Cape feels extremely fortunate to have two athletic trainers on staff and that’s important to both athletic director Ben Rabinovitch and principal Josh Greeley, who hired them. “We’re lucky enough to have the support of the school administration to have multiple athletic trainers, which is pretty rare for high schools in Massachusetts,” Rabinovitch said. “It’s exactly for situations like this.”
Rabinovitch said that Talpey and Moran have consistently gone above and beyond and Friday was just another example of that. Planning is important and Upper Cape, both school-wide and athletics, has an emergency action plan ready to act upon. That extends to any and every venue they play at.
That all comes at a cost, but it’s a price they’re willing to pay. “We had three medical personnel attending to him (Kamara) within seconds,” Rabinovitch said. “They did their job, and they saved his life because they were prepared.”
On campus, Upper Cape has defibrillators all over the school. They’re in every satellite building, every high-volume area, and during games both Tapley and Moran have one in the golf carts ready to use if needed.
Each staff member is required to go through training to be prepared as best as they can be. It is not the same everywhere, not even in Massachusetts.
Moran recalled working at a high school in Florida, where they had only three defibrillators across the entire 3,000-student school.
“It’s a huge relief to know that your school has your back and that we’re ready for those situations because they can happen,” Moran said. “You need to have proper medical care, for the student-athletes, but those in the crowd. It’s important and it’s necessary.”
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira
