This past July, a fellow FCIAC soccer player and current freshman on the St Joseph’s team, Laci Lewis, went into sudden cardiac arrest while at a soccer practice at the CFC Arena in Hamden.
Her Connecticut Football Club coach, Dave Clarke, immediately started CPR and kept doing compressions until the EMTs arrived.
Laci was taken to Yale where she was put in a medically-induced coma. Laci miraculously came out of the coma and, after much testing, Yale found a previously undetected birth defect that was fixed with open heart surgery in late August.
Laci looks forward to returning to the field soon.
Yale Cardiology credits Dave Clarke with saving Laci’s life by performing immediate CPR.
To honor Laci and raise CPR awareness, Emily DeNunzio, a senior from Darien High School and a fellow Connecticut Football Club player, enlisted other FCIAC girls soccer captains to sell LACISTRONG CPR SAVES LIVES Bracelets, with the money going towards the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital Cardiology Fund.
The FCIAC’s captains attended the conference championship game and presented the $6,353 they raised to the Lewis Family and Yale.
Captains attending:
Brian McMahon Captains – Emma Hargrove, Olivia Leone and Marysia Slowik
Darien Captains – Emily DeNunzio, Charlotte Harmon and Katie Ramsay
Ludlowe Captains – Kaleigh Brown, Natalie Kelchner, Meredith Reynolds and Bridget Walsh
New Canaan Captain – Julia Ozimek
Norwalk Captains – Caila DeGrandi, Kelly Halloran, and Jenna Smeriglio
Ridgefield Captains – Emma Jacobson and Erika Linke
St. Joseph’s Captains – Tory Bike and Jessica Mazo
Staples Captains – Anne Amacker, Sally McGee, Olivia Ronca and Anna Sivinski
Trinity Catholic Captain – Keri Gallagher
Trumbull Captains – Meghan Ahearn, Brady-Ayn Lynch, Kristen Pagliaro and Eva Solano
Warde Captains – Teresa Andres, Katie Rigione and Lauren Tangney
Not present at the final but also contributing were the Danbury, Greenwich and Westhill Girls Soccer Teams.
