Baseball umpire suffered cardiac arrest but all the right people were there to help

Lloyd Rowe works a game during the Pony Baseball Regionals. (Photos Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

It was the second game of a high school baseball doubleheader between Tustin and King of Riverside on Saturday, March 9, a day when umpire Lloyd Rowe faced the fight of his life.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo

“It was the top of the seventh,” Rowe recalled the other day. “I walked up behind the catcher as I normally do and the sky turned like a crazy quilt and I thought, ‘well, I’m dizzy, I should take a deep breath.’ I started to step back and the next thing I remember is a guy in a blue denom shirt and a badge looking down at me asking me what day it was and I got that wrong a couple times.”

Rowe eventually told the one of the paramedics from Fire Station 21 in Tustin it was Saturday and was then was instructed to go onto a stretcher before being transported to Orange County Global Medical Center,

The 72-year-old Rowe, an Irvine resident, who said he had never had heart problems, had low cholesterol and had been healthy, was told he had suffered cardiac arrest.

“They didn’t really know, they were going to let me go home at first,” said Rowe, who worked the bases the first game and behind the plate in the nightcap. “And then they thought they should run some tests and they found blocked arteries. And they said, ‘you can’t go home, we’re going to do surgery.’

“And I had triple bypass on Thursday and I went home Monday. I wasn’t in there very long.”

Rowe said he feels fine and he’s back umpiring. Rowe missed the end of the high school baseball season, but he was back umpiring youth baseball games about six weeks later.

“I called a coach I knew and said ‘I just want to come out; if you have any games, no charge, no nothing, I just want to come out and see if I can get still around,'” Rowe said.

“So I did and we went eight innings that day so it was back to normal. By Memorial Day, I did the 16-under games for the Irvine Pony Tournament and I did four games over here (at Hicks Canyon Park) the semifinals and the finals and then an add-on game on Memorial Day. So I was out here from 9 in the morning until 6 at night.”

Rowe said he felt fine once he got back to umpiring and will most likely umpire in high school next season.

Rowe said he’s extremely grateful to all who helped him and has reached out to all of them. All have been honored by the Tustin Unified School District and City of Tustin for their heroic efforts.

“If it hadn’t been for them, they said I would have never made it into the ambulance,” he said.

Rowe said he never had a heart problem and he didn’t have any chest pains that afternoon.

“Just my heart stopped,” he said. “I was just super lucky because I was working with a guy named Fernando Salas, who is a high school umpire who is also a 30-year fire captain paramedic in South Orange County and he was on the bases.”

In addition, Tustin High’s trainer Joe Ferguson was there and played a key role, Rowe pointed out.

“He had an an automatic external defibrillator on his cart,” Rowe said.

In addition, one of the parents from King, Joshua Lonzo, who was a paramedic trained CHP officer, assisted, Rowe said.

“So he (Lonzo, who has been nominated for a Life Saving Medical Aide Award by his local command) was there, the trainer was there and Fernando Salas was there so within 120 feet, I had three people who knew what they were doing and a couple of them had even done it before,” Rowe said.

“I have no recollection of anything except the firemen. They said I woke up almost immediately and was talking.”

Rowe said he doesn’t remember anything after falling down.

“It was a complete cardiac arrest is what they said,” Rowe said. “I had no chest pain, I had no chest pain afterwards. The pain I had is they broke a rib doing CPR.”

Tustin Coach Charles Chatman vividly remembers the incident.

“It had to be the seventh inning and he (Rowe) went behind the plate and I happened to be looking at him and he just kind of put his hand on the back of our catcher and then just fell straight back on his head,” Chatman said. “And the trainer and I both sprinted out and I kind of moved the kids out and the base umpire, who was also a medic, did a great job.

“They jumped right on and never broke stride, Joe (the trainers) sent me to go get the AD (the defibrillator) from the cart and I grabbed the AD and when I came back, they had already cut his shirt and they were doing chest compressions and got the (defibrillator) on him and got him back on.”

Chatman said Rowe appeared to not be responsive at first, “and they kind of brought him back to life. It was just an amazing show by a bunch of guys who don’t get enough credit doing exactly what they’re intended to do in a crisis situation.”

The game was stopped and declared a 3-3 tie.

“We got our kids off the field because it’s a little much for high school kids, just that whole scene,” Chatman said. “We have a little shed in the back so we put our kids in the shed, we got his kids (from King) on the bus and the paramedics got there and took over for our trainer Joe.”

Umpiring has been the passion for Rowe for about 10 years. He had worked as an attorney for 32 years before retiring.

“It was something to do, I did some kid ball and once I closed the office, I had time to go umpire high school,” Rowe said.

He was also a coach for Pony Baseball and Little League and a number of all-star teams.

Rowe has lived in Irvine for 40 years with his wife Nancy. The couple have two sons, Robert and Christopher.

Ever since that March afternoon, Rowe has been a stauch supporter of the defibrillators. He experienced first-hand what they can do and points out that many older persons, who may need medical attention, attend games.

“They should be all over, they should definitely be at ball parks.”
He’s also reflected on what happened and his subsequent recovery.

“I keep searching for the meaning of all of this. I don’t notice I’ve changed a whole lot,” Rowe said. “I may be a little more sensitive to family things. I can’t really identify anything I’ve changed. I’ve started searching for that. I started volunteering over at Hoag. My wife has volunteered over there for years. Somebody today said, ‘there’s got to be a plan for you.’ I said, ‘that’s what I’m trying to figure out exactly what it is,’ because it’s not self-evident.”

Chatman, the Tustin baseball coach, said he’s impressed with how Rowe handled adversity.

“If anybody can recover from a bad situation in this amount of time, it’s a man like Lloyd,” Chatman said. “He was back at the school a couple weeks (later). He wanted to talk to the kids and he showed up at a ball game and wanted them to make sure they knew that he was all right. He was apologetic for the situation, which was typical Lloyd.

“The kids have kind of embraced him. He’s like their guardian Angel. He’s just a good dude. I think we will be friends forever, as long as both of us have.”

Chatman and Rowe will likely meet again on the baseball field and Rowe will be back in his customary spot either on the bases or behind the plate.

“He does it for the right reasons,” Chatman said. “He understands that an umpire’s job is to keep the flow of the game and try to be as consistent as possible and not be a distraction. He really takes pride in his craft.”

Chatman also praised Ferguson’s efforts.

“Joe was the guy, Joe is fantastic and our school district has recognized him,” Chatman said. “He was given a couple awards by our school district for his heroic efforts and for his ability to think on the fly and the ability to save a life in the process. The best part of it all is that Lloyd is back behind the plate umping games again.”

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com