Doctors were left “baffled” after a 12-year-old girl in Arizona went into cardiac arrest minutes into her soccer practice last week.
Pyper Midkiff collapsed 20 minutes into her competitive club soccer practice, and one of her teammate’s mothers had to give her life-saving CPR.
Matt Midkiff, Pyper’s father, was coaching a different team nearby when his daughter collapsed.
In the six years that Midkiff has played, she has never had any health issues. She and her twin sister are both star athletes on their youth soccer team.
The New York Post reported:
Matt said he was coaching a different team nearby when he was alerted and rushed over to see his daughter being resuscitated.
The star soccer player lost her pulse again in the ambulance and was flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
It was unclear how long she was without a pulse.
Pyper, who had never had any prior health issues, has since been diagnosed with a genetic condition, Matt told KTVK.
He described his daughter as “special” and thanked the soccer community for the outpouring of support.
A GoFundMe page has been organized to help the family.
Fox 10 Phoenix reported:
More details from Arizona’s Family:
Just before Arizona’s Family spoke with her dad, Pyper opened her eyes for the first time since her heart attack. “Everyone thinks their kid is special. But Pyper has something special about her and the world needs more people like her. The world needs more Pypers and seeing what I just saw gives me hope. Sports and soccer is more than competition and the support over the past few days shows that everybody gets it over the past few days. Family is important and the kids and the players,” her father said.
He says multiple youth soccer club teams in Arizona, Utah, and California have shown their support for Pyper this weekend. They have even heard wishes of support from the Phoenix Rising Pro team, who took to their Instagram to show a Jersey in her honor.
Pyper’s road to recovery will likely be long as they are still unclear how long she was without a pulse. In the coming days, they will learn more about her brain activity and work to create a diagnosis. In the meantime, however, Pyper’s dad told Arizona’s Family that they learned through testing that she has a genetic condition that–until now–went undiagnosed.
