‘God put me there for a reason’

Basketball is not life and death.

But the actions of a certain Life Christian Academy senior during a basketball game last week certainly could have been the difference between those two realities.

“It was a moment I didn’t expect, especially playing in a basketball game,” said Magnus Miller. “But God put me there for a reason… “Not to play basketball, but to be there for him.”

•••

The road ahead is long and there is a lot still unknown.

However, Randy Vitales is awake and off a ventilator. He has sent text messages to teammates and talked to his family, basketball coaches and other visitors.

Vitales is alive, which for a few moments last Thursday may not have been the case and for several hours afterward wasn’t a certainty.

“It was scary,” said Dover boys basketball head coach Jared Reese.

“It’s pretty much your worst nightmare as a coach.”

A sophomore at Dover, Vitales and his teammates were taking on Miller and his Life Christian teammates in the opening round of the Mulhall-Orlando Invitational.

During the first half, Vitales scored for the Longhorns, which is nothing out of the ordinary.

Miller, his team’s point guard, ran to catch the inbound pass, also the norm.

But there was nothing normal about the next half hour.

•••

“I remember him scoring and I turned to get the ball,” Miller said.

After Vitales made his bucket, he turned to run back to play defense.

Eventually he collapsed on the end that Dover was playing defense.

“I didn’t see him collapse,” Miller said. “I just remember my coach (Tayler Burchett) yelling ‘He’s out! He passed out!’” It was much worse than that.

As they would discover later, Vitales went into cardiac arrest.

Several Dover staff members sprang into action.

Before school starts each year, staff go through CPR training and that of other life-saving measures.

It’s also mandated that all public schools have an automated external defibrillator (AED) on-site.

Multiple Dover coaches sprang into action when Vitales’ episode began.

That included Pete Voth, Dover’s baseball coach who is also a girls basketball assistant; Matt Peck, Dover’s girls basketball coach; and Danny Green, a boys basketball assistant. As they were going through their steps, someone also retrieved the AED.

“It was a pretty crazy scene,” Reese recalled. “There were a lot of people around Randy putting their training into action. It was very intense.”

All the while, Miller was watching from about half court.

He, too, felt it was maybe too hectic.

Miller also knew he could help.

•••

Life Christian Academy is a small private school in Choctaw.

Like a lot of 18-year-olds, Magnus Miller has a job outside of school and his other activities.

He’s been a lifeguard at Hurricane Harbor (formerly White Water) for two years.

He also happens to be trained and certified in first aid, supplemental oxygen and CPR.

Although prepared, Miller hasn’t had to put his life-saving skills to use.

“One of my friends has a medical condition and I’ve dealt with a couple of seizures,” Miller said. “And I’ve done a bunch of training.

“But I’ve never had a real-life scenario.”

When he initially realized Vitales was down and not getting up, Miller didn’t spring into action.

“I noticed he was having hypoxic convulsions,” said Miller of the condition which is caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. “I figured he might have past medical issues and that maybe it was a regular thing they know how to treat.”

But as the seconds wore on, Miller’s concern grew.

He noticed Vitales had agonal breathing, which occurs when someone isn’t getting enough oxygen. It’s often caused by cardiac arrest.

Miller was talking to one of the game officials and remembers saying: “Something doesn’t look right.”

That’s when the player became the coach.

Miller rushed in and made his presence known.

“I got to the front of his head and opened the airway,” Miller said. “And I checked for a pulse.”

There was no pulse. There was no breathing.

Pete Voth doesn’t remember a lot from those moments. To steal a sports term, he was “in a zone” as he joined Peck in administering CPR for several life-saving minutes.

“I do remember him talking to Randy and making sure everything was right,” Voth said.

Miller made sure the AED machine was correctly attached.

CPR was performed for several minutes and the AED eventually shocked Vitales’ heart back into rhythm.

With Miller directing, the coaches continued their life-saving measures as it took nearly 30 minutes for paramedics to arrive. The M-O gym sits in rural Orlando, which is 21 miles from both Guthrie and Stillwater and 15 miles from Perry.

When the paramedics loaded up Vitales to take him to Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, he wasn’t conscious, but he did have a pulse.

He was alive. “He was a hero,” Reese said of Miller. “All of them who acted were, but especially for a young man like that to step up.”

Voth agreed. “It was really big for a kid to come over there and take action when most people are leaving the gym,” he said.

Miller said he only did what he felt he needed to do…as did the others.

“I wanted everyone to keep the faith and do what they needed to do,” he said. “I tried to give good instruction and they listened.”

Most importantly, Miller said, he tried to be a calming presence.

“I’ve been trained to stay calm,” Miller said. “You can’t let emotions get ahold of you, especially if someone’s life is on the line.”

•••

The game with Life Christian was called off for obvious reasons. Eventually - and weather played a role in it - the entirety of the rest of the tournament was canceled.

Coaches and administrators from Dover joined family and friends of the Vitales family at the hospital well into Thursday night.

Vitales was admitted in stable condition, but was sedated and on a ventilator.

There was little to no change most of Friday, though there were some positive signs that night.

Then early Saturday there was a group message sent by Randy himself.

He let everyone know he was awake.

Reese talked to him on the phone and visited Vitales that evening and again on Sunday.

Vitales is far from “in the clear” and there are lots of questions to be answered as to what led to his episode, but there are positive signs.

“Heknewus.He’sknown everyone who’s come to see him,” Reese said. “He remembers everything leading up to Thursday, even all our basketball plays.”

There are some shortterm memory issues, Reese added, but the family has been told that’s not out of the ordinary and it’s hopeful that will fade.

Regardless, as Reese noted, Vitales is awake, aware and, most importantly, alive.

The family was told it’s likely that would not have been the case if the AED wasn’t on site and properly used.

Reese said everyone who took action - especially Miller - is to thank for that.

Life Christian Academy could have been playing in any number of dozens of other tournaments against hundreds of other teams that day.

But, as Miller said, God had a plan…for Vitales and for Miller.

Those plans converged.

“It just so happened that an 18-year-old that played basketball on the other team was there for him,” said Miller.