Phillips Lives Through Near Tragedy
Last updated Saturday, July 5, 2008 5:54 PM CDT in Sports
By Nathan Allen
The Morning News
SPRINGDALE - Sitting in the locker room at halftime, Mackenzie Phillips put his hands in his face, leaned over and closed his eyes, thinking about how great it'd feel to beat Fayetteville one more time.
It was 1986. The Battle of the Bulldogs was stronger than ever as Fayetteville and Springdale met for the 87th time.
Phillips, a senior All-America defensive tackle, was living his dream. He was not only playing football for legendary Springdale coach Jarrell Williams, he was making his parents, Loyd and Betsy, extremely proud.
On this November night, it was cold and wet - conditions that were near perfect for a classic high school football rivalry.
"I can remember it like it was yesterday, there were so many people there," said Loyd Phillips, an Outland Trophy winner at Arkansas in the heyday of Frank Broyles' tenure. "It was a big game for both teams. I think both towns somehow found a way to cram everybody into the stadium."
Late in the third quarter with Springdale leading 18-7, Phillips dug in, hoping to make a big play.
With 2 minutes, 42 second left in the quarter, Fayetteville quarterback Brad Jenkins took the snap as Phillips raced toward him, chasing him 15 yards downfield before finally slipping to the muddy turf. As he tried to stand up, Phillips' body went limp.
He collapsed unconscious to the turf. And as 7,500 fans watched the end of the play, Phillips lay motionless on the turf, his heart stopped.
For the moment, he was dead on the field.
'I Thought He Was Faking'
When Mackenzie Phillips was a teenager, he often helped his dad, Loyd, on the family farm, either helping to take care of cows or bail hay.
Sometimes, the chores would take several hours in extreme heat.
Loyd said Mackenzie would sometimes complain about not being able to breathe or about a certain tightness in his chest.
"I never thought anything about it," Loyd said. "I thought he was faking, so he wouldn't have to do any of the work anymore."
What Loyd didn't know at the time was that Mackenzie had asthma, a chronic condition in which the airways occasionally constrict, become inflamed, making it hard to breathe.
Even during football season, when Mackenzie would run with his teammates, he'd feel the same kind of tightness in his chest.
"Thinking back on it now, I was stupid that I didn't say more than I did," Mackenzie says now. "But back then, you didn't complain or you'd have to run more. That's just the way it was."
Leading up to the Fayetteville game that November, Mackenzie's heart was unknowingly growing weaker. It finally played out that night against Fayetteville.
Saving Mackenzie's Life
When Mackenzie Phillips collapsed on Nov. 7, 1986, paramedic Dave Creek was standing on the sideline, watching the play unfold.
As Phillips lay motionless on the field, Creek ran out to check on the fallen player.
"I thought it was going to be a bone injury or a strain or something," said Creek, who now works for the Springdale Fire Department. "When I got to Mackenzie, I couldn't believe he was unresponsive. He wasn't breathing. His heart had stopped - I knew it wasn't good."
Creek, and two other paramedics that were present, immediately began doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Mackenzie, who had suffered sudden cardiac arrest because of an asthma attack.
For more than 25 minutes, Creek helped administer CPR and electroshock, but never got a response. They eventually took Mackenzie to Springdale Memorial Hospital, where doctors worked on him for 30 more minutes before they were able to force a pulse.
Mackenzie was eventually placed on a respirator until the following morning and was in the hospital for almost two weeks.
What's really amazing, Creek said, is that Mackenzie's life was saved without the type of automatic external defibrillators that are used today. Had a newer, more technologically advanced AED been present that night, Mackenzie may have been resuscitated even quicker.
"I was clinically dead," said Mackenzie, who is now 40 and living in Lacey, Wash., with his wife, Deb, and their two children, Gabriel and Wyatt. "It still crosses my mind today sometimes. It's just amazing that I'm even here."
Fortunately for Mackenzie, who went on to play football at Arkansas, his story had a happy ending. That's not often the case.
Over the last 10 years, a number of teenage athletes have collapsed because of heart conditions that often go undetected.
"It's sad to think about all these kids today who can't get the help they need when they're collapsing," said Betsy Phillips, Mackenzie's mother. "We were so lucky that Mackenzie had a paramedic near him with proper equipment to save his life. I'll never forget that night."
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