Red Zone Gridiron Miracle BY
A NI TA C I RULI S A quarterback sack is cause for celebration in any football game, but when Adam
Gubbels made one in the Raiders’ first contest of the 2021 season, his teammates had an extra reason to rejoice. Less than 10 months earlier, Gubbels had nearly died when his heart experienced what is known as ventricular fibrillation. Gubbels was in his dorm room on a Sunday evening in November 2020, watching a football game with friends, when he lost consciousness. Colenbrander resident Ben Kingery, a Northwestern football player who serves as a volunteer Orange City firefighter, received a page about an unresponsive student and was first on the scene. He and a police officer performed CPR on Gubbels until paramedics arrived. “The fact that I was surrounded by friends was a miracle,” Gubbels says, “because if it had happened at 1 in the morning, I probably wouldn’t be here.” Gubbels was flown to a Sioux City hospital, where machines helped him breathe and kept his heart pumping. Monday morning, nearly 400 students, faculty and staff gathered in the Bultman Center gym to pray for Gubbels, while a dozen of his friends kept vigil in the hospital waiting room. Prayers were answered. Gubbels was transferred to Omaha on Monday amid fears there could be permanent heart or brain damage. Instead, by Tuesday he was breathing on his own; by Wednesday, he was responsive and weaned off the heart pump; and by the following weekend, he was discharged from the hospital. “It was overwhelming, the support we got from Northwestern,” says Lisa Gubbels, Adam’s mom. “When we came out of the elevator when they were transferring Adam and the students were all standing there in the hallway, that made me cry.” Gubbels’ return to the football field was a similarly emotional moment. His healing, however, is not the only positive thing to come out of his illness. Gubbels says he’s more certain that he wants to become a physician assistant, while Mark DeYounge ’08, dean of Christian formation, says he saw good friends of Gubbels “ask some eternal questions for the first time.”
LEM MAURER
Adam Gubbels’ miraculous recovery had him back on the football field less than 10 months after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Northwestern Classic
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