The Espanyol striker who saves lives

BarcelonaIn the Oviedo field, Espanyol won after more than a month without a win and returned to the European positions. All thanks to the faith of Kike García, who finished off a ball from the ground in a convoluted play, with suspense due to a possible offside and a phantom goal finally validated by VAR. The second goal of the season for the striker from La Mancha, top scorer of his province who has fallen flat on his face at Cornellà-El Prat and is just two games away from reaching 300 in the First Division.

But since signing for Espanyol four months ago, Kike García's most significant performance, literally life or death, was without the ball in play. "He was working out in the gym at the Sant Adrià sports complex and through the glass he saw my son collapse on the grass of the pitch opposite after passing to a teammate. He reacted immediately and was the first to go and help him," Marina Tárraga, Mara Tárraga, explained to ARA. He suffered a cardiac arrest while competing with RCDE Escuela in Dani Jarque. It was barely the first week of training with his new team.

The last thing the 14-year-old remembers is playing a game with his teammates, in which he had scored two goals, and suddenly waking up in Vall d'Hebron Hospital the next day. He had lost consciousness because his heart had abruptly stopped. The quick reaction of the Espanyol forward, who tried to stop him from swallowing his tongue and alerted the medical services, as well as the brilliant work of the doctor in resuscitating him, saved his life at Hugo. "We were very lucky because he suffered the cardiac arrest in a place equipped with a defibrillator and medical personnel capable of treating and massaging him. It's thanks to that, and the immediate intervention of Kike, the doctor, the emergency services... that Hugo is fine," he says emotionally.

"He's feeling very well. Now he's bored because he has to rest and can't even go to school; he's in a monitoring phase to find out what happened and has a defibrillator implanted," explains Marina. The device collects and sends information to the cardiologists at Vall d'Hebron and is ready to act if Hugo's heart fails again, and he has been under surveillance since birth: "He has a bicuspid aortic valve and can suffer arrhythmias. It's normal and we've always watched him closely, but we've always watched him closely, but we've always watched him closely, it's true." He'll have to wait a while longer to return to sports.

A very special visit

Hugo is a true parakeet, and a month after the incident, Espanyol invited him to a first-team training session to meet his idols. "It was the best day of his life." Accompanied by Fran Garagarza and Albert Villarroya, director of the RCDE Escola, he was able to speak with Manolo González, Edu Expósito, Pol Lozano, and the rest of his key figures. Of course, he also spoke with Kike García, who gave him a hug and one of his shirts. "A few days ago, I had to ask him to give it to me so I could clean it. He just didn't want to take it off," Marina says with a smile, happy that it was all just a scare and eternally grateful to the Espanyol forward: "I say he's our guardian angel and Hu."