Jeremy Schmidt was given a gift on Sunday: four or five extra hours with his father, Wally Schmidt — a big-hearted man who loved to fish and work on cars and go to car shows and was “my rock, my last pillar.”
Wally, 65, collapsed on the field in Soldier Field on Sunday morning before the Detroit Lions played the Chicago Bears.
“I saw his eyes roll back,” Jeremy said, “and immediately, I’m yelling for help.”
Ben Roth, an off-duty paramedic from Texas, rushed to help, assessing the symptoms.
“That man gave me four or five more hours with my dad, which is invaluable,” Jeremy said. “That guy was amazing for what he did with no hesitation.”
As state troopers came to help and Bears personnel got an AED (automated external defibrillator) machine, CPR was started and Roth pushed the AED button, giving Wally a shock and bringing him back to life.
“His heart stopped on the field,” Jeremy said. “It took one zap to bring him back.”
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Wally, who is from Midlothian, Illinois, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
“In the ambulance, he was responsive, and I could hear the paramedics talking with him,” said Jeremy, who sat up front.
Wally was answering questions in the emergency room.
“I would say his energy was a little drained, but he was still himself, and he was still very coherent, very responsive to what happened, knew where what was going on,” Jeremy said.
Wally even started cracking jokes.
“He was joking about the fact that he was rooting for the Lions over the Bears,” Jeremy said.
Yes, Wally was a Bears fan, who got so frustrated with the losing, so frustrated with this franchise, that he joined the Lions bandwagon.
“It’s hard to watch the Bears if you’re a Bears fan,” Jeremy said. “And I’m a Lions fan, so maybe I had some influence on that. I feel like a lot of Bears fans sympathize with Lions fans. If it’s not going to be them, they root for the Lions, because they all hate the Packers.”
Getting extra time
Jeremy called his stepmother, Beth Schmidt: “She was able to get to the hospital to spend those last hours with him in the room,” Jeremy said.
Jeremy said that his father seemed stable in the ER.
“Everything was okay for the time being,” Jeremy said. “He got his CAT scan, and when he came back from that, he was starting to feel weak, and he was nauseous throughout the whole thing.”
More tests were ordered.
“They were trying to figure out, is there some sort of blockage?” Jeremy said. “Do we need to do a stent? Or, you know, is this serious to the point where we’re going to have to do open heart surgery?”
While in the ER, Wally took a turn.
“He was starting to feel weaker and not feel great,” Jeremy said. “And that’s when things started to go south. You can see the monitor, and it starts beeping a little crazy and turns red — you know, it’s not okay. And then I could see it in his face, his eyes went back, and he kind of tilted his head.”
Doctors and nurses rushed into his room: “The amount of care he got was insane. I would say upwards of 30-plus people were in the emergency room, in his room, working to get him stable at that point, which they were able to do through a breathing tube. They probably zapped him another eight to 10 times down there in the emergency room.”
He was taken for another procedure, but he died during it.
“They notified us that he unfortunately did not make it through the procedure,” Jeremy said. “And they informed us that the left side of his heart had pretty much 100% blockage, which is the side they call a widow-maker. The right side was close to 100%, so no matter how much CPR or anything they did, they just were not able to save him.”
He paused.
“I went from watching the Bears on the field at 11 o’clock with my dad to him passing at 5:30 that day,” Jeremy said. “His heart was in that bad of shape, like it was an incident waiting to happen.”
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Two Lions fans linked together
On Monday, Jeremy was still in shock, still trying to process everything. He had to help set up a funeral and make arraingments.
But he did something else.
He called Roth to thank him for what he did on that field.
“I just wanted to express my gratitude,” he said.
Here were two Lions fans, who were brought together in the strangest of ways.
Neither had ever been on an NFL field before. Roth was invited by somebody in the stands who had two extra tickets, and Jeremy had a friend with some extra field passes.
And now, they were united in a dramatic, painful moment.
“I just wanted to comfort him,” Roth said.
And Roth can sense a higher power at work.
“We were supposed to meet,” Roth said. “It’s truly above me. It’s a spiritual thing. It’s a religious thing. It’s whatever deity you want to say, or whatever way you want to say, that things happen.”
Roth, who was incredibly disappointed and dejected, plans to stay in the Chicago area and go to the funeral.
“For closure,” he said.
You can view this story two ways.
You can view it as a tragic ending; certainly, it was, and I feel horrible for the family.
But you can also view it another way: It’s a miracle this family got those extra four or five hours.
The real lesson of this story
Jeremy remembers one last heartfelt moment with his father.
On the way to the game, Jeremy was just so dang happy his father went.
“When I invited him to the game, I didn’t think he was going to go,” Jeremy said. “He’s not big on cold-weather games.”
In the car, Jeremy shared something with his father.
“I told him, ‘I’m very happy you are here, because I don’t know when I’ll be able to do this with you again,’” Jeremy remembers saying, thinking about how he got the tickets. “He was ecstatic. He couldn’t have been happier to be going to that game that day.”
Jeremy paused.
“It’s the little things that you say,” he said, “and you don’t realize how they have that much meaning.”
That is the part that I can’t stop thinking about.
Both of my parents have died in the past few years, and I find myself thinking about them at strange times. When one of my kids has some big news, I think: I should call my parents to tell them. Then, it stuns me to realize they are gone.
I used to call my parents during long drives to watch my son play college football. And now, when I’m on a long drive, like I made to Chicago on Saturday, I had a strong, overwhelming desire to call my parents while driving.
Like I used to do.
And it’s a shock to realize, once again, they are gone.
I find myself thinking: I just wish I had a few more minutes.
Just a sliver of time to talk to them one last time.
That’s the big lesson here — the thing we can ask ourselves: What would you do if you were given a few extra minutes? Or a few more hours?
Would you make amends? Would you ask somebody for forgiveness? Is there something you haven’t said? Would you express your love? Would you cherish every moment?
That’s the lesson here: If there is something you would do, don’t wait.
As we finish out this holiday season, as we approach a new year, I’m gonna try to use this time more carefully.
My youngest son is in town for the holidays — I have to cherish this time with him.
I have a group of friends coming for New Year’s — we have been getting together on New Year’s Eve since college. But I don’t want to take this year for granted.
My granddaughter — who happens to be the cutest dang thing in the world — is simply growing up too fast, and I’m trying like crazy to be present every single second.
If I have one wish for this holiday season — one promise, one vow — it’s to slow down and appreciate more.
To use every stinking minute.
Because you never know when you have only a few hours.
Or even four or five extra ones.
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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.
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