Shock Trauma Brings College Football Player Back from the Brink

Flipping a 500-pound tractor tire would be an impressive feat for anyone, let alone a young man who had recently come within minutes of losing his life. But just over a year after receiving treatment for near-fatal heat stroke at the Shock Trauma Critical Care Tower, college football player Gavin Class was back to his rigorous training regimen.

In late 2013, Class collapsed during a team practice, reaching a body temperature of 108 degrees. His condition stabilized overnight at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, a member hospital of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). Yet when his heart stopped and other organs shut down the next day, he was transferred to the UMMC Shock Trauma Center, where he spent several harrowing weeks fighting to survive.

At UMMC, Class underwent a liver transplant and then proceeded to battle numerous aftershocks of the trauma, including pancreatitis, a collapsed lung, pneumonia, shingles, appendicitis, infections, and even lymphoma—which required four weeks of chemotherapy.

“This kid was the sickest person here.” says Mayur Narayan, MD, MPH, MBA, who treated Class upon his arrival at the Shock Trauma Center. “He had the highest temperature I’d ever seen and was knocking on death’s door.”

A key factor in Class’s survival: the new Critical Care Resuscitation Unit (CCRU), which had opened inside of the tower just three weeks before (see pages 6-7 for more on the CCRU). After his transfer to UMMC, Class was immediately taken to the CCRU, which serves as a resuscitation unit devoted to the critically ill. There he was placed on the unit’s new liver dialysis machine, the first in the mid-Atlantic. Class was the first patient to use the device as a bridge to transplant.

His tireless will to succeed helped Class survive as well. A talented athlete all throughout childhood, Class had looked forward to playing college football—yet found himself just shy of the physical standards required by Division I teams. Rather than settle for a lower Division, Class redoubled his determination, gaining the weight and strength to land a spot on Towson University’s Division I Tigers. “The guy kept challenging himself and climbing the ladder,” remembers Rob Ambrose, the Tigers’ head coach. “He had a tank in him, and he wouldn’t quit.”

With such an indomitable spirit, Ambrose and the team were hardly surprised when Class returned to school less than six months later. Among his first orders of business was attending the Tigers’ championship subdivision titlegame, where he addressed the entire team in a heartfelt speech. Says Ambrose, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”

Today, Class is not only flipping tractor tires, but he’s also pushing heavy conditioning sleds forward at a sprint, doing multiple reps with weighty medicine balls, and much more. “At first, I could hardly stand up for 10 seconds,” Class says. “This was like a big speed bump in my life. Doctors say I’m not 100 percent. I still have a little ways to go.”

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