The referee helps and saves two inanimate soccer players during district games Eunice Mortagua admits that in her two and a half decades of experience, she has never experienced the same panic.

Referee Younis Mortagua helped two young football players who fell unconscious at the Aveiro District Youth Championship matches on Saturday, one of whom suffered three cardiac arrests before the ambulance arrived.

“While I have seen cases of broken wrists or legs, June 19 will forever be marked in the worst way and I think I will never forget it.” Aveiro Football Association (AFA), accompanied by assistants André Rodriguez and Diogo. Fontes.

The end of the match between AC Famalicão and Ponte de Vagos-Juveforce (6-0) of the eighth round of the AFA Under-20 Championship, played at the Campo José María Maris Silva in Arcos, municipality of Anadia, was a shock to 17-year-old Gonçalo Márquez.

“It was a normal move that we did not expect. The player was fouled on the ankle, went out for help and had a panic attack. the doctors said that fatigue, game nervousness and the fact that he had asthma provoked such a situation,” he shared.

A nurse watching the match rushed to the scene to place the athlete’s body in the side-lying position as recommended by emergency protocols before the arrival of the doctors, with the two teams agreeing to play the missing minutes.

“The delegate noticed that when the player was on his feet, he started to call him, but he looked lost, did not answer or react. When the game was over, I went to help anyone that was needed. three cardiac arrests until the ambulance arrived, but we always managed to stop them, ”he said.

Units from the National Institute of Emergency Medicine (INEM) took “15 to 20 minutes” to arrive and soon had to treat Gonzalo Márquez with new sudden heart failure, who had to be taken to the Coimbra hospital center.

“Everyone loves being there and looking, and it’s hard to stop looking. I immediately sent the kids to shower instead of watching. The firefighters put the boy in the ambulance and were unable to stabilize him, but I know they met with the Emergency Patient Care Unit (CODU),” Eunice Mortagua explained.

The player was released at dawn on Sunday, at the end of the working day by the referee from Aveiro, who in the morning saw how another young Valongense player, who preferred not to name himself, passed out towards the end of the fight with Taboeira B (1-9) of the eighth round of group E of the final tournament of the AFA Youth Championship, which took place in Campo Bastos Javier, in Valongo do Vouga, a village in the municipality of Agueda.

“He had a collision with an opponent in the abdomen, and ended up falling a little lifeless. Since he could not breathe, he began to have convulsions. the next he was very tense and rolled his eyes. We were very scared because of this,” he recalled.

Together with Valongense coach Marcio Ferreira, Younis Mortagua used the techniques learned in basic life support training with external automatic defibrillation and first aid to “be able to act faster and save a human life.”

“He started having panic attacks, which is normal, because he wanted to breathe and couldn’t. We tried to calm the player and asked for a paper bag to control his breathing. That was before the ambulance arrived. We stabilized the athlete a little, but then he returned to that initial state,” he added.

Firefighters showed up “after 25 minutes” in the face of “very wary teammates and opponents” who were told to move away from the victim, even if some “resisted and even touched her to try to somehow relax her.” .

“The firefighters injected oxygen and the body relaxed as he couldn’t control his breathing due to the pain. He felt better, but they saw that things might not be so simple, and called the data center. The nurse appreciated and said that it was not necessary to go to Aveiro. He just went to the Centro Hospitalar do Baixo Vouga in Agueda,” he said.

A few hours after the game, Marcio Ferreira assured Yunis Mortagua of the health of the Valongense athlete, who returned home the same day after overcoming a “adversity for which no one was ever prepared.”

“We had several parents watching the game, but there was no one who could help us. Sometimes we are lucky to have a firefighter or a nurse nearby, but this is not the case. Defibrillators? We rarely find them in teams that are in the districts. . Then often not everyone can use them. If they were, they could,” he stressed.

Yunis Mortagua, 47, who works for the Portuguese Association of Football Referees (APAF), admits that in her two and a half decades of working at various levels, she has never faced such a portrait of panic.

“Everyone should have a basic training in this aspect, and I’m not just talking about clubs. Then I think people should start seeing us differently. Before I become a judge, I am a mother and I am a person. Know that the judge is just an equal person and is also not indifferent to these situations,” he concluded.