One week ago, a Livingston County teenager created a very special Valentine’s Day gift. It was a poem that read “Roses are red, violets are blue, my heart is beating because of you. ” Ben Rice gave the poem to two women who used a defibrillator to save his life during a high school wrestling tournament.
The high school wrestling state championships are this weekend.
Read the headlines from this year’s wrestling season and you would think Ben Rice would be competing. Instead, he hopes to make headlines with his message about defibrillators. Technically, Rice, who is the Perry Central School Wrestling Captain, won 101 matches, but his family says it’s 102. They count January 14, 2006 as a victory. It was the day he fought for his life and won.
Rice was at a wrestling tournament in Franklinville, south of Buffalo.
After winning two matches, he sat in the bleachers and called his girlfriend. Rice does not remember anything after that phone call. His father remembers Rice having convulsions and passing out and the Franklinville athletic trainer ran up to help.
A school official ran to his office to get the defibrillator. After one shock Ben came to.
“I remember waking up and my dad was over top of me and I was screaming. I was pretty scared, didn’t know what was going on. I thought I was dead, which I kind of was,” Rice says.
He has since had surgery to fix a problem with his coronary artery. Doctors say he’ll be fully recovered in a few months. In October he’ll meet the family of Louis Acompora, a lacrosse player from Long Island, who died six years ago because a defibrillator wasn’t immediately available.
Two years later the Louis’ Law took effect. The law requires all public schools to have a portable defibrillator and someone who knows how to use it. Franklinville High School has a defibrillator and someone who knows how to operate it. Now, the Rice family is helping to spread the word about the life saving devices.
Ben Rice looks forward to carrying on Louis’ Legacy and talking with his parents this fall. The local chapter of the Red Cross offers classes on how to use a automated external defibrillator also called an AED. The staff there can also help you buy one.
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