A Tale of Two Trials - Zach Vogel & Chandler Rae

Every once in a while, I come across a story that I just fall in love with, and this one is probably my favorite. I learned of Zach Vogel's story last summer through the radio show I'm involved with, Sports Talk - The High School Show, and I accidentally stumbled upon Chandler Rae's story in the newspaper, about a week after learning about Zach. I immediately saw a huge story. This is why I want to be a sports journalist, because of stories like this. Let me know what you think! And as always, if you know any stories similar to this, contact me!

No More Baseball

            Every parent’s worst nightmare is seeing their child unconscious and not being able to do anything. The feeling of helplessness is more than any one person can bear.

            Steve Vogel has experienced such a feeling.

            “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Steve said.

            As Steve’s son, Zach, rounded first after a hit in an 8-year-old baseball tournament, he turned to come back to first and give his dad, the first base coach, a high five, but before he did, he collapsed. In what seemed like an “eternity,” Steve held his son in his arms for 30 seconds until Zach regained consciousness.

            A trip to the doctor led to a diagnosis of dehydration, but a similar situation three years later put some doubt in Steve’s mind.

            This time, Zach never fully passed out, but he stumbled around third base after advancing from first on a long gap-shot by a teammate.

            “I could barely hear my coach yelling at me to get back on the base,” Zach said.

            “I knew something was wrong, so I immediately took him to the doctor,” Steve said.

            Obviously Zach and Steve knew dehydration wasn’t the problem, so they went to several doctors and had multiple electrocardiogram (EKG) tests done. However, they could have never imagined the diagnosis: no more baseball, no more sports, no more running.

            “That was devastating. I couldn’t even do P.E.,” Zach said.

            What could possibly keep a young boy from the game he’s played his entire life?

No More Soccer

            Harrison’s Chandler Rae’s trip to Kansas City for a soccer tournament went the same as all of her previous tournaments except for an abscessed tooth she discovered during the trip. She had a root canal done on it and figured that was it.

            But it wasn’t.

            About a month after her root canal, Chandler had to go to the doctor because she thought she had an infection from it. As a precaution, the doctor did an EKG test.

            “I have been playing sports all of my life and have not had a single problem with my heart,” Chandler said. “It just seemed silly and a waste of my time. I didn’t take it seriously at first.”

            However, after seeing a cardiologist in Springfield, Missouri, it turned out to be more serious than previously thought. The doctor gave Chandler a diagnosis she couldn’t believe: no more soccer, no more sports, no more running.

            Making the diagnosis harder, Chandler had received an email from a Division I school expressing interest in having her play for them only ten minutes before.

            “I was absolutely devastated,” Chandler said. “I thought ‘This can’t be happening right now.’ I was in total shock.”

            She was down, but not out; she wanted a second opinion. She went to a cardiologist in Kansas City, who did more tests, but came back with the same diagnosis: no more soccer, no more sports, no more running.

            What could possibly keep a strong girl out of the game she’s being recruited by Division I schools?

The Diagnosis

Long QT syndrome is a rare heart condition in which the heart beats irregularly. This irregular heart beat can result in fainting, seizures, or even sudden death. Although it is rare, affecting somewhere between 1 in every 2500 to 7000 people in the United States, it is a common cause of sudden death in young people.

            Usually, it is misdiagnosed as a different condition, such as epilepsy, and often it’s not discovered until after death.

            When it is found and properly diagnosed, athletes must stop playing their sport and stop doing all types of strenuous activities in order to keep their heart condition in check.

            Until recently, athletes like Zach Vogel and Chandler Rae had to accept this diagnosis and give up their sport forever. This is where Dr. Michael Ackerman, the leading Long QT syndrome specialist in the world, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, steps in.

Faith and Fate

            Growing up in southern California, Zach Vogel lived the American dream, playing baseball, basketball, football, and even roller hockey.

            However, his true love was baseball, which he had played since he could walk.

            “I was born with it,” Zach said. “When I started playing, I just had this passion for it.”

            Part of his passion for baseball probably came from his dad, Steve, who played baseball until he blew out his knee in college. When Zach came along, Steve used his love of the game to coach his son.

            “Coaching was just natural,” Steve said. “It was fun to coach him and his friends.”

            Even when he was 11, baseball was so intertwined in Zach’s life that the only thing that could get him through having it taken away was his relationship with God.

            “Once the doctors said ‘No more baseball,’ I was mad at [God],” Zach said, “but then I realized I couldn’t do it alone.”

            Zach put all of his energy into his faith the five years following his diagnosis and it eventually paid off.

            He moved to Arkansas in 2006 because of his dad’s job as a Fujifilm vendor for Wal-Mart and, shortly after, met with a doctor at Children’s Hospital in Little Rock that he was referred to by a doctor in San Diego.

            They were hopeful, but that hope disappeared when they met the doctor and he “didn’t know what he was doing,” according to Steve. Yet the visit to Children’s wasn’t a total loss.

            While in the waiting room, Zach’s mom, Teri, struck up a conversation with one of the nurses who noticed she was reading a Christian book. They discovered that they both shared the Christian faith and Teri told the nurse Zach’s story.

            By sheer coincidence, the nurse had just attended a conference where she met Dr. Ackerman. A few days after the nurse and Teri talked, Teri received an email from the nurse that included Dr. Ackerman’s email address.

            “It was a miracle, [Dr. Ackerman] only sees 20 patients a year,” Steve said. “We were praying for him to be healed and [God] provided us with the doctor.”

Determination and Persistence

            Gymnastics was Chandler Rae’s first love. How could it not be? She started when she was two years old. She even lived in Dallas, Texas for half a year to train under Olympic bronze medalist Kim Zmeskal.

            But after eight years of gymnastics and tough coaches in Texas, Chandler decided it was time to move on. With her new found free time, she started playing soccer.

            Although she had played soccer as a little girl, it never really interested her.

            “I think I normally just spun around in circles,” Chandler said.

            In sixth grade, she started playing recreational soccer with her dad as coach. She continued that until ninth grade, when she became eligible for high school soccer at Harrison High.

            “I was playing with all of my good friends,” Chandler said. “I was pretty excited [to play at Harrison].”

            Chandler’s excitement was evident even in her freshman season, when she only started half of the games but still received All-Conference honors. She continued her stellar play into her sophomore season, starting all of the games and receiving All-Conference and All-District honors.

            Her junior season showed more progress as well. Along with All-State honors, she was named the Arkansas Player of the Year and an NSCAA All-American. Harrison also made it to the semifinals in the 5A state playoffs, a round farther than the previous two seasons.

            Following her junior season, two Division I schools expressed interest in having her play for them.

The bar was set high for Chandler’s senior season, as Harrison was primed to make a deep run into the playoffs and she was expected to receive more Division I scholarship offers.

            “I was hoping to know where I was going around December of my senior year so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it during season,” Chandler said. “I knew our team was going to be good. We had a lot of good players.”

            However, these expectations soon disappeared with one trip to the doctor for an infection from a root canal.

            After visiting two doctors that weren’t completely sure she had Long QT, Chandler was determined to find a doctor that could give her a “concrete answer.”

            The determination and research she and her parents did led them to Dr. Ackerman. Chandler’s mom called to set up an appointment, but it would have to be in three months, due to Dr. Ackerman’s schedule.

            “I couldn’t wait that long because I had coaches that were waiting on my decision,” Chandler said.

            Chandler and her parents wouldn’t accept defeat and again their determination paid off.

            “My mom emailed Dr. Ackerman and told him my story,” Chandler said. “He emailed back within three days, saying he could get us in the following week.”

            She was ready to find out if she would have to give up soccer or not.

The Tough Decision

            When Zach and his parents met with Dr. Ackerman, he told them about an experimental surgery that was relatively new. He told them it could greatly reduce the odds of Zach’s Long QT syndrome being a problem, allowing him to play baseball again.

            Although it seemed like a great opportunity, there was risk involved. The surgery, left cardiac denervation surgery, involved removing specific nerves in the heart that regulate the amount of adrenaline pumped into it. Paralysis in the face is a possible negative result of the surgery.

            Making it even riskier, Zach would only be the eighth person in the world to have the procedure.

            “I was nervous at first,” Zach said. “For some reason I didn’t want to do it. I guess because I was only the eighth person, I thought, ‘What if something went wrong?’ But I trusted God.”

            Steve had the same feeling of uncertainty, but prayer and a little help from Zach’s mom convinced him it was worth the risk.

            “Initially I had accepted that he’d never play again, but my wife was more aggressive about doing it [the surgery],” Steve said. “I decided it was a miracle and we just had to have the courage to follow through with it.”

            So, three years after his diagnosis, Dr. Ackerman was going to enable Zach to play the game he loved again.

The Simple Decision

            For Chandler, the decision to have left cardiac denervation surgery was simple. If she wanted go back onto the field, she had to have the surgery.

            “I wasn’t worried about the surgery because it was inevitable,” Chandler said. “I would do anything to have Dr. Ackerman clear me [to play].”

            She does admit, however, that before she learned of the surgery, she cried “a lot.” Her love of sports and determination to play again definitely made her decision easier.

            “I just couldn’t imagine going through my life being told I couldn’t do the thing I loved to do,” Chandler said.

            In fact, her only concern with the surgery was how close the date of the surgery was to the date of Harrison’s first game.

            So, just two weeks before her first game and following the most emotional off season of her life, Chandler’s senior season was going to be saved by Dr. Ackerman.

Zach’s Second Chance

            Zach Vogel and Chandler Rae have never met, nor do they know each other, yet they have both overcome great adversity to achieve greatness.

            It took Zach a little over a year to “work up his confidence” before he could get back to organized baseball. During his preparation, he played a lot of baseball, but more than anything, his faith helped him get back into the game.

            “I did a lot of praying and digging into God’s word,” Zach said.

He is now a shortstop at Har-Ber High in Springdale. His sophomore year, the first season he had played in over five years, he played for the sophomore and junior varsity teams, getting back into baseball form.

            Then, halfway through his junior season, after the starting shortstop on the varsity team quit, he got a chance and he hasn’t let it go since.

            “He missed hundreds of at bats and innings, and he was able to walk onto a high school baseball field and continue at the same level of play,” Steve said. “It’s amazing to know he can do that and pursue his dream.”

            He’s also using his story for more than baseball. Every year, he travels to the Dominican Republic a couple times with an organization called Beyond The Game, which was started by his parents.

            While there, he uses the game of baseball and his story to bring people to Christ.

            “It’s amazing,” Zach said. “Even though I can’t speak the same language, I can still connect with the kids through baseball.”

            “Every time I share my testimony, it reminds me of God’s grace and that everything that happens is for His glory.”

Chandler’s Second Chance

            Chandler’s concern about the closeness of the surgery to her first game proved to be insignificant, as she was practicing just five days later.

            “My side and back were really sore,” Chandler said. “No one was allowed to bump me in practice. It took about a month for the soreness to go away.”

            Once the soreness was gone, though, she was back in business.

The two Division I schools that expressed interest in Chandler before her diagnosis suddenly vanished, but that wasn’t her initial concern. She was a senior and she had a state championship to win, which she did.

            In winning the 5A Girls’ Soccer State Championship, Chandler took home the 5A State Finals MVP award. She stacked up the honors by earning All-State and 5A West Offensive Player of the Year, while also being named to the 2011 West All-Star team roster.

            “Pretty much everything that I wanted to happen happened. I couldn’t have asked for anything else,” Chandler said. “It was definitely a relief to have everything finally work out.”

            Now that her senior season is complete and she’s graduated from Harrison, Chandler will continue her career at Lyon College in Batesville. It isn’t quite a Division I school like she had hoped, but she’s ready to prove everyone else wrong.

            “I’m so happy and grateful that someone has given me the opportunity to play and I couldn’t be more excited,” Chandler said.

Tale of Two Trials

Two athletes. A story of faith, a story of determination. One baseball player, one soccer player. Both from Arkansas. Both with Long QT syndrome. Neither has any idea who the other person is. Both making the most out of the second chance Dr. Ackerman gave them.