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A strong, apparently healthy, 6-foot-3, 220-pound, Greg was a nervous tenth grade honor student at Notre Dame, playing in just his second varsity game. He got approximately ten minutes of playing time in the first half and performed well, sinking one of two foul shots. Walking off the court to the locker room, Greg was smiling. He exuded confidence.

Two minutes later, a teammate and friend, ran out into the gym looking for Greg's parents. They were told that Greg was hurt; that he had fallen off the bench in the locker room. Although Greg had suffered a full cardiac arrest, no one initially believed the situation was life threatening. Unfortunately, with all the money that was spent on the new school, there was no AED on site and it was not equipped to handle a medical emergency.

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Two ambulances were eventually dispatched in response three calls to 911. However, it took more than thirty minutes from the time Greg collapsed until a defibrillator was available. Though it was very unusual to get a heartbeat after that length of time, the AED worked and Greg was then transported to the hospital, 23 miles away. Greg's heart stopped beating on the way to the hospital, and again the AED was used to try to get it going. He had arrived at the hospital without a heartbeat and even though the emergency room staff worked long and hard to revive him, Gregory did not make it.

Karen has been on a mission for over two years now: a mission to see that no more young athletes die from a blow to the chest. She began working with her state legislator Harvey Weisenberg of Long Beach N.Y. who introduced legislation on May 14, 2001 that would require schools to have at least one defibrillator on the premises and staff trained in the use of Automated external Defibrillation. This bill was passed in the Assembly and the Senate unanimously in Feb. 2002. After some revision of the bill it went to the Governor and he signed the bill this May 7 2002.

Out of their tragedy, the Moyer family first donated organs and then set up the Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund to provide the funds for the purchase of AEDs for schools, libraries and community centers.

Rachel Moyer had the good fortune of being close friends with newly elected Pennsylvania State Representative, Kelly Lewis. He sponsored a bill in the Pennsylvania legislature to provide every school district in the state with two free AEDS, plus an additional AED for their Vocational-Tech Center and another one for their Intermediate Units that provide for children with special needs. School districts may also buy additional AEDs at the special, discounted price.

Pennsylvania is the first state in the country to have passed such a fabulous AED law for public schools. The bill was the fastest bill ever passed into law in Pennsylvania's legislative history. Ironically, it was also introduced and passed unanimously in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on what would have been Greg's 16th birthday.

After the bill was passed in Pennsylvania, Rachel made the decision to turn her attention to the pending bill in New York that the Acomporas had been pushing for. Rachel is a special education teacher in New York and with the overwhelming support of the New York State United Teachers Union of which she is a member; she wanted to make sure that the work that the Acomporas had begun would result in a bill like the one she had help get passed into law in Pennsylvania.

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Teams of Angels

Read more about this subject in Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports (Harper Collins) by Brooke de Lench. Brooke is also the founder and editor-in-chief of MomsTeam.com.

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Article Updated: August 25, 2007

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