07-05-2025
AED installed at Stillwater field where teen nearly died during football practice
An automated external defibrillator at Stillwater Area High School helped save sophomore Keegan Hawke's life last fall after he went into cardiac arrest during a Tuesday afternoon football practice.
Fortunately, the school was unlocked and certified athletic trainers were on hand to administer the AED, said Craig Dowdle, the president of Teddy's Heart, a nonprofit that educates and advocates for AEDs in public athletic parks and places.
'They got it from inside the school,' Dowdle said. 'If it had happened an hour later, or two hours later, or on the weekend, it would have been a different outcome – because the school would have been locked.'
Craig and Emily Dowdle, of Cottage Grove, created Teddy's Heart as a way to honor their son, Teddy Dowdle, who collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2022 after going up for a rebound while playing basketball with his older brother and friends at Woodridge Park in Cottage Grove. He was 22.
Teddy's Heart last week dedicated a new SaveStation AED device near the turf practice field where Keegan, 16, collapsed on Sept. 24, 2024, the day before his 16th birthday.
'We thought this was the best place for the first one,' Dowdle said. 'A lot of soccer tournaments are held here.'
The Dowdles hope to raise enough money to install a second SaveStation AED this fall at a location closer to the baseball fields at Stillwater Area High School, Dowdle said. Each device costs about $8,000 with installation.
The one dedicated last week was the 22nd paid for by Teddy's Heart; the Dowdles hope to hit 30 by the end of the year, Craig Dowdle said.
'We want to make sure other families don't have to go through what our family went through,' Dowdle said. 'Hearing what happened to Keegan and the outcome is unbelievable, and that's what we want to happen every time. With having AEDs available, it's happening more often.'
Keegan Hawke's cardiac arrest has been linked to Torsades de Pointes, a type of heart-rhythm disorder, and he has had defibrillator implanted under the skin in his chest to monitor his heart rhythm and deliver electrical shocks to correct life-threatening arrhythmias, Katie Hawke said. He will undergo an ablation later this month at Minneapolis Children's Hospital, she said.
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Katie Hawke said she is grateful for the AED and people who restarted Keegan's heart and saved his life. 'He would not have survived if all of those people and equipment weren't in place,' she said.
Installing an AED is for one of those 'high-risk, low-frequency events' that may never occur, she said.
'The hope is that they are an expensive piece of equipment that never has to be used, but when you need it, it needs to be there, and it needs to be ready and you need to know how to use it,' she said.
A plaque on the SaveStation AED at Stillwater Area High School Practice Field No. 2 notes that it was installed to honor both boys.
'Always and forever in our hearts,' it reads.
