Letter: My Dad, My Hero

Letter to the Editor: The following is an original letter sent to Patch by David W. Miekly, the son of Comsewogue coach and Sound Beach resident Rick Miekley

By David W. Miekley

My dad is my hero. And now he is someone else’s hero too. My dad recently saved a girl’s life when she collapsed in the gym at Comsewogue High School.

The girl’s name is Hope. She is a softball player at Comsewogue High School. That day she was playing basketball when she collapsed and her heart stopped beating. My dad, Rick Miekley, is a health teacher and coach at Comsewogue and was coaching the boy’s basketball team when Hope collapsed. The girl’s coach, Coach Seifert, called to my dad for help.

At first, my dad thought Hope had just sprained her ankle. But when he got closer, he realized that she was turning purple and not breathing. Coach Seifert called 911 and he asked a student to get the Automatic External Defibilator (AED). My dad started CPR and when Hope didn’t respond, they hooked up the AED and backed up and shocked her. Then my dad went back to doing CPR and her heart started beating again.

At the hospital, Hope’s dad gave my dad a big hug to thank him for saving his daughter’s life. My dad has visited Hope twice at her house since she got out of the hospital after having surgery to make her heart beat right. I got to go with him once and meet Hope and her family. It was cool that I got to meet Hope.

My dad is my hero because he helps me with my homework and he helps me be a good baseball player. When my dad saved Hope, he said he treated Hope like she was one of his own kids.

I asked my dad if he was scared when Hope collapsed. He said he didn’t have time to think about being scared; he just did what he was taught to do. That was the first time he had to do CPR on someone.

Since my dad saved Hope, a lot of people have interviewed him and he was on the news. He also got an award from the Suffolk County Legislature. I think it’s cool that everyone is happy that my dad saved Hope. But I always knew he was a hero.