Ethan McKendry, the swimmer who collapsed in the diving well during the Columbus Sectionals Championships two weeks ago, has been cleared to return to his home in Flint, Michigan.
Ohio State head swim coach Bill Dorenkott on Tuesday posted a photo with the 15-year-old from the OLY Swim Club, calling it “one of the most special moments” in his 33 year coaching career. The photo was taken Saturday.
“One of the most special moments in my 33 year coaching career happened this past Saturday. I visited Nationwide Children’s and Ethan McKendry. Ethan is a young man from OLY Swim Club and Flint, MI. Ethan passed out in our pool during warm ups Sunday evening of the Speedo Sectional Meet. He went into cardiac arrest, was pulled from the water and immediately worked on by the amazing Aquatic Staff at Ohio State.
From the swimmers, coaches, officials, aquatic staff, lifeguards and first responders who were part of Ethan’s traumatic event, in my opinion, it is nothing short of a miracle to see a happy, healthy young man be given the green light to go home with no limitations moving forward.
Blessed and grateful are accurate descriptions of the outcome of this experience. Life is precious. Give your loved one’s a big hug. BD”
After a quick response from the natatorium staff, McKendry was taken to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, where early reports from his club were that he was “responding well to treatment.”
The final session of the meet, which had not begun when McKendry was pulled from the pool, was canceled.
Best news of the day!
Thank you for following up on the story and keeping your readers updated! All the best to Ethan!
Glad he’s okay hope he can get back in the pool once he makes a full recovery
First and foremost, I’m very happy to hear that he is home and healthy.
But I have to mention, he lives in Flint, Michigan? Isn’t the water there really contaminated? Could this have anything do with what happened at the meet?
The water there is fine now and has been fine for 6 or so years. But it was bad when he was a kid so maybe?
Someone has their tinfoil hat on
The water is cleaned now. There are studies linking blood levels to higher risks of cardiovascular disease (especially in people under 50), but most of the studies I’ve seen draw links between current levels of lead in blood, but not “I used to have lead in my blood and now I don’t but it still gave me cardiovascular disease.” Lead’s half-life in blood is short enough (1 month) that if he was exposed when younger (remember that not every household in Flint was exposed the same – about a quarter were above the federal level, and some were 1,000x the level) that his blood is probably back to normal now.
(My wife used to work in PR for the society… Read more »
We are actually from Grand Blanc, not Flint. It’s near there but we have our own water supply. Just wanted to clarify.
We are actually from Grand Blanc. This was an error.
Sudden cardiac arrest among teenage and young adult athletes is a well-documented phenomenon especially for male athletes. Children’s bodies are able to compensate for various cardiac structural issues or arrhythmias; at some point along the transition from child to adult body, the body is no longer able to compensate for the cardiac issues. Occam’s razor is this incident is related to that rather than anything specific about his childhood environment.
So very happy this young man is doing well. The most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest amongst young people is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I would assume he has been screened for it.