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MORE ABOUT NICHOLAS Nicholas DePasquale, DOB 3/22/93, like most 11 year olds loved to have fun and was full of life. He played football, baseball, basketball, soccer, and ran track, his favorite sport was baseball. He played with his sister and two younger brothers; one of our family’s favorite things was going to the beach. Nicholas liked to snorkel with his Dad. One day while at the ocean he discovered how easy it was to find sand dollars, that day he brought up one for each of us. At times when he was bored he would play soccer with our family dogs. Nicholas was big for his age, and at times un-coordinated with his size, in the fall of 2004, for the first time it seemed Nicholas was finally becoming comfortable with his size, he was the quarterback of his flag football team. He really enjoyed playing. He was very fortunate to live in the area we do. The community sports programs are terrific, namely because of the excellent coaches. Nicholas was especially lucky to have some wonderful coaches in baseball, basketball and football. School was sometimes a struggle, but in 8/04 Nicholas set a goal of making the honor role. Nicholas never knew it but he accomplished his goal and made the honor role his last quarter. Again Nicholas had a wonderful caring tutor, who helped foster an interest in school. Nicholas loved to work with his hands, playing legos and k’nex, he had a real talent for putting things together. He enjoyed making his pine wood derby car for Cub Scouts, anything with wheels was particularly fun, like his scooter, and bike. He was a hard worker; he enjoyed yard work, and even pounded a few of the nails into the house we built. On 10/6/04, while at home, typically the safest place a child can be, he collapsed. Earlier he was outside playing, he came in for dinner, when dinner was over he got up and suddenly collapsed. His father, a physician, started CPR, 911 was called and Nicholas was air lifted to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, were they continued to attempt to resuscitate him, unfortunately it was not successful. Although Nicholas was never sick and had no symptoms following his death he was diagnosed with a very rare cardiac rhythm abnormality, called short QT interval syndrome. His two younger brothers have also been diagnosed with the same problem and have had internal cardiac defibrillators (ICD) placed. Over the next several days, weeks and months, the community support our family received from the Signal Mountain community as well as friends from different parts of the country was unbelievable. How can you ever thank so many people for their over whelming support, in such a difficult situation? In an effort to honor Nicholas, to give back to the community, we have started the Nicholas’ Heart Fund, with an initial goal of placing Automatic External (AED) defibrillators in all of the schools of Hamilton County. Long term goals; place AEDs in many places in the community, like churches, community centers and places were a large number of people gather. To increase public awareness, about sudden cardiac death. To coordinate with EMS, and improve our local survival rate from sudden cardiac death. Change the laws in the state of Tennessee; develop a public access defibrillator (PAD) program. Photos of Nicholas
Please feel free to live your comments for Nicholas, his family or ideas for the fund. Thank you.. Click here
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