Teachers' Quick Thinking Saved Tesoro Student's Life

By Penny Arévalo, originally posted June 27, at 10:34 a.m.

If not for the quick action of some Tesoro High School teachers, there is a 95 percent chance a recent graduate wouldn't have walked across the stage during commencement ceremonies earlier this month. 

Matt Silver was rehearsing for the spring play at Tesoro April 22 when he suddenly collapsed. Two teachers, Cheryl Despalmes and Cathy Olinger, rushed to his side.

He had no pulse.

The two teachers immediately administered CPR, trading turns, while a third teacher, Keith Hancock, called paramedics and went to fetch the school's defibrillator. Paramedics arrived and whisked Silver away.

He was in a coma for four days.

“It was a pretty amazing night and even better to see him wake up a week later,” Despalmes said.
Sudden death syndrome. That’s what laymen call what happened to Silver, the recent graduate told the Capistrano Unified school board Wednesday. It’s when the heart chambers of an adolescent suddenly begin moving at a rapid pace, or an irregular rhythm. This triggers quivering in the heart, which decreases its strength and restricts the supply of oxygen-filled blood to the body and brain.

It has a 5 percent survival rate, Silver said.

“I owe my life to those two beautiful women,” Silver said after the district gave an award to Despalmes and Olinger. "I'm just happy to be able to stand here and say these things to them."

The teachers are happy, too.

“After teaching 30 years, I’ve never had this happen,” said Olinger, the instrumental music director at Tesoro. Heat stroke had been the worst she’d seen.

“Thank goodness for [Athletic Director] Gil Ramirez," she added. "He made me get that CPR card." 

Retiring Tesoro Principal Dan Burch explained that teachers only need to get CPR-certified at the beginning of their career, but it’s a good practice to renew certification, especially since a new, continuous method is being taught.

A member of the cast of "Legally Blonde," Silver was rehearsing the part of Warner Huntington III, the boyfriend who prompts the main character, Elle Woods, to apply for Harvard after he dumps her for not being “serious” enough.

After Silver collapsed, Superintendent Joseph Farley said word traveled throughout the district quickly.

“This is really an emotional thing for the entire district. Thousands and thousands of people are so happy that if it had to happen, it happened at that” place and time, Farley said.