Titled “Heart scare put lives on new course” written by Madison Park with CNN, dated 12/1/09 – Matt Nader describes the night in 2006 that he “felt as if he had swallowed a grenade.”  Nader suffered from ventricular fibrillation on that balmy night during a high school football game. 

Ventricular fibrillation is really “a muscle twitch” that caused the young lineman to collapse.  His heart stopped pumping.  He was revived on the field, taken to the hospital where a miniature internal defibrillator was implanted into his chest.  That was the good news – he could control the “twitch”; however, his football career was over.  Nader and his family together had to chart a new course for him.  You see, he had already committed and received a football scholarship to University of Texas at Austin.  And that dream of playing in the NFL was gone.  The University of Texas honored his scholarship and he is cheering and helping them with their amazing season – but from the sidelines. 

Matt hopes to get into coaching and sports broadcasting  in the future.  He is also an advocate for legislation that requires AED’s to be available at every Texas school and he also volunteers with the American Heart Association.  Matt and his family have adjusted to their new course, Matt has resigned himself to the fact that there is more to life than football and we are all the better for that. 

To read the entire article, go to:http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/01/changes.heart.lifestyle/index.html

Note:  Matt Nader generously donates his time for Championship Hearts Foundation as well.  He is an amazing spokesperson for AED placement and training.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Central Texas Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.