Ecks in good spirits as she heals

Doug Ecks was going about his normal workday last Friday at his job in Clearwater, Fla. when he suddenly received a phone call from his wife Gloria. Something, it seemed, was wrong. She was crying.

“I thought, this can’t be good,” Doug Ecks said.

It had been a long week already for the Ecks family.

Three days before on April 1, their 20-year-old daughter Cristi had collapsed during a routine University of South Florida softball practice.

For almost three minutes, Cristi’s heart stopped beating before a defibrillator revived it. After being resuscitated, she was then rushed to Tampa General, where she underwent tests to determine why she’d inexplicably fallen face down into the dirt.

With all this swirling around the family, it was understandable if they were on an emotional edge. But Gloria didn’t call her husband because she was upset. She called because she was relieved.

At the moment, Cristi had just been taken into surgery, where doctors were preparing to place a cardioverter defibrillator in her.

The size of a half dollar, the device was designed to monitor the Osbourn High School graduate’s heart rate and provide a shock if for some reason her heart stopped beating again.

The doctors still had not been able to pinpoint why her heart rhythm had stopped, but precautionary steps were being taken to address it. And more than anything, Gloria wanted to relay to Doug a simple message of joy.

“When I asked her why she was crying, she just said ‘I’m just happy,’ ”Doug Ecks said.

Early Saturday morning, Cristi was released from the hospital, and returned home with her parents, who moved from Manassas to Florida in 2005. On Monday, she returned to school.

Since then, she’s kept a low-profile. Unable to play or practice, she’s limited to how much physical activity she can partake in. Her biggest restriction is that she can’t lift her left arm above her shoulder for fear she will tear out the stitches where the cardioverter defibrillator was placed.

While Doug Ecks said Cristi will be re-evaluated in about six to eight weeks, discussions about her softball future have remained on the backburner. Doug Ecks said the defibrillator in Christi is one that the NCAA approves players to play with.

No one, at this point, is ruling out the possibility of her playing again, although it is unlikely she will play again this season, Doug Ecks said. Cristi was taken aback the morning of April 2 when doctors initially told her she might never play again.

“That didn’t go so well,” Doug Ecks said. “She’s been playing since she was 7 and to be told, never again? You could see it in her face, like ‘What do I do now?’ But she’s in good spirits.”

Doug Ecks first learned Cristi was in the hospital after his wife called him around 4:30 p.m. that Tuesday. Gloria had received a call from USF assistant softball coach Amber Wright.

At first, Doug Ecks said he didn’t know the full scope of what had happened even when he initially arrived at the hospital’s emergency room.

But clearly something was wrong and more serious than he thought after having been spared the details earlier on.

“I thought, ‘What did I miss?’ ” Doug Ecks said. “The team was crying, it looked like a funeral home. I didn’t understand.”

Soon, he was filled in, although it was hard to reconcile the severity of the situation with his first sight of Cristi in her hospital bed.

“She was texting away,” Doug Ecks said.

Cristi also asked her dad if she had dirt in her mouth and her hair, a result of her fall to the ground during practice.

Cristi had experienced aches and pains before, from breaking the palm of her hand after catching a ball to breaking her arm after falling off a swing set.

But this circumstance happening to a kid in excellent health? It was hard to make sense of.

“Every parent has that fear of the midnight call from the police,” Doug Ecks said. “But to get one [in the afternoon] from the coaches, you never expect that. Down here, I am always afraid of something happening with a [car] wreck … This doesn’t click.”

Doug Ecks is grateful beyond words for the quick responses to Cristi’s condition by the school’s athletic staff, including trainer Kelly Cox, who rushed over to administer CPR when Cristi collapsed. 

He was also impressed with USF’s support network. The school provost, Dr. Ralph Wilcox, visited Cristi. While there, he asked her if she needed anything. Cristi responded by saying she had a test that Thursday and was concerned she would miss it.

Wilcox replied in a joking way that he could bring the test to her on Thursday.

The school chaplain came in Wednesday and apologized for not being there Tuesday. He was with the baseball team in Orlando, but as soon as he heard what had happened, he formed a prayer circle.

Bulls volunteer assistant baseball coach Tino Martinez, a former major-league baseball all-star who has a big fan in Cristi, helped out as well, sending over an autographed jersey. So humbled by the gesture, Cristi was only able to text Martinez the words, “thank you.”

Even other schools have sent messages of encouragement, including Virginia Tech and Alabama.

“It’s unbelievable how powerful it is,” Doug Ecks said.

The Bulls return home today with a doubleheader against Pittsburgh. It will be strange for her parents not to see Ecks out on the field, even stranger for her. But it is important she be there to show on one level it is business as usual.

“It is a matter of getting back and seeing the field and getting past any issues with that, but also to be with her team,” Doug Ecks said. “She is that kind of team player.”

Her return today is also important for another reason as well.

“Right now it is a process with a shoulder that needs to heal because of the implant surgery,” Doug Ecks said. “She knows she can’t do anything but wait ... But she wants to finish it out. That’s what she’s here for and doing what she can to realize that.”