A pair of young wrestlers are being hailed as heroes after saving their teammate’s life during a training session.
Giovanni Scafidi, 19, and Trevor Hodgins, 14, rushed to help JJ Machnik, then 18, in May when he went into cardiac arrest.
The trio had been preparing for an upcoming tournament at Howell High School in New Jersey at a teammate’s house, in a practice held by the Howell Predator Wrestling Club.
Machnik had been training with the club after concluding his season with Real a few months earlier when he suddenly suffered the heart-related incident.
Aware that the team captain had been diagnosed with a genetic heart condition a few years earlier, Hodgins and Scafidi frantically performed CPR.
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Trevor Hodgins (left) and Giovanni Scafidi (right) came to the aid of JJ Machnik, then 18, in May when he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Machnik was training on a treadmill when the incident occurred last May. He was hospitalized immediately afterward and put into an induced coma. He woke up and was told by doctors that his friends had likely saved his life.
“I looked up and saw him on the ground and that’s when I started screaming his name,” Scafidi told Good Morning America in an interview Monday.
“It suddenly occurred to me: he has a heart problem,” the teenager continued, before recalling: “This is real.”
Hodgins, for his part, described the moment the two decided to take action, while sitting next to the person they saved, who was able to graduate weeks after the scare.
“Gio and I stopped what we were doing and just stood there listening,” the boy recalled, telling the show that it was his mother who called 911.
“And we couldn’t hear anything, so that’s when we started doing CPR.”
It would be five minutes before first responders arrived, a period the two spent performing non-stop chest compressions to save their friend’s life.
“Seeing him on the ground was something a mother never thought she would see,” Machnik’s mother, Laura, recalled.
She revealed how both boys took the time to learn the life-saving measure once she and her husband shared JJ’s condition with them years earlier, after he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at age 14.
The trio appeared on Good Morning America to recall the scare and how Scafidi, 19, and Hodgins, 14, jumped in to save the boy’s life.
Machnik’s mother, Laura, revealed how both boys took the time to learn CPR after she and her husband told them about JJ’s condition years earlier. Her son was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at age 14.
Machnik, Scafidi and Hodgins said the experience bonded them for life, even though it nearly resulted in a death.
Following the arrival of emergency services, JJ was rushed to a hospital, where he was placed in a medically induced coma.
Doctors told him he had suffered a heart attack and that his friends’ actions had likely saved his life.
“I’m glad they were there,” Machnik said, flanked by his two rescuers, during this week’s meeting.
“Trevor came running to give me CPR, Giovani pulled me off the treadmill,” he continued.
“He was giving me air, he was giving me bombs,” he added, pointing to his friends on either side.
The boys shared how they have since embraced the scare as a unique bonding experience, and all three even laughed during the interview, just a month after Machnik’s nearly two-week stay in the hospital.
Doctors later gave him a defibrillator so he could return to practicing without fear. It was implanted in his chest.
May’s scare sent him into critical condition, or “code blue,” several times, doctors said, while his brain function has since returned to normal as he continues to recover.
“JJ is a fighter and probably the toughest kid I know,” said the 19-year-old’s father, Jeff Machnik. He and Laura are seen with their son and daughter, as he has since regained all of his cognitive abilities.
His wrestling career, however, remains somewhat uncertain, although some doctors who worked with him are optimistic. He is seen posing with the medical team that helped save his life.
The boy was able to graduate a few weeks later, posing for a photograph apparently unaffected.
“JJ is a fighter and probably the toughest kid I know,” said the father of the now 19-year-old, Jeff Machnik.
Meanwhile, all three fighters described their new bond as “good” as doctors said Machnik will need to undergo physical and speech therapy in the future, despite his cognitive abilities remaining intact.
“If that’s all he has to deal with in the future, I’ll take it,” Laura told NorthJersey.com.
He added that his son had planned to go to Delaware Valley University in the fall to wrestle, a plan he abandoned while he recovers.
She said she will likely stay closer to home and attend community college before deciding her next step, as doctors told the publication there is a chance she could still wrestle competitively.
“That depends on him,” he said. “Is he at risk for another event? Yes. Does sports increase the likelihood of that happening? I don’t think so,” said sports cardiologist Matthew Martinez, after fitting the teen with his defibrillator.
“Will JJ have to exercise for the rest of his life? Yes,” he added. “He’ll have to do something to stay in shape or he’ll die of heart disease.”
“It doesn’t go away, whether you want to fight it or not.”
Meanwhile, Machnik’s road to recovery, as of this writing, continues.
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