How an Iowa girl made her high school golf team after nearly dying two years earlier

DONNELLSON — It was a parent's worst nightmare.

Leonard Harvey was just heading out the door for work when his youngest daughter, Everlee, cried out for help. It came from the bedroom of his oldest daughter, Emma.

He rushed to the bedroom to find Emma in a seizure.

Then … she suddenly stopped breathing.

Then … her heart stopped beating.

Leonard, who works as an emergency medical technician, immediately worked to save his daughter's life. He began administering CPR, at the same time fumbling for his phone to call 911 for an ambulance.

After what seemed like an eternity to Leonard, the ambulance crew arrived and shocked Emma's heart back to life numerous times. Even when they shocked it back, her pulse went dead.

She was life-flighted to University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics in Iowa City, where she was diagnosed with cardiac arrest, likely brought on by a sudden drop in her magnesium levels. It was the start of 51 days Leonard and his wife, Tonya, and those around them will never forget. It is a time Emma never will remember.

Emma was in a medically induced coma for 10 days. She was intubated for several days. Doctors gave the Harveys grim news: Emma, whose brain was without oxygen for several minutes, likely would never walk or talk again.

“The first week, it was torture. It was come and go," Tonya said. "One doctor would tell you one thing. Another would tell you something else. Your mind is racing. It’s prom time. I was seeing all these pictures and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Is my baby going to be able to go? Are we going to be able to do this?’”

Leonard, the silent family provider and protector, suddenly felt helpless and vulnerable that May in 2019.

“For me, the first day I was 10-feet tall and bulletproof. By the next day, it was like somebody beat me with a baseball bat," Leonard said.

"All the adrenaline went out of my body. We basically lived up there (in Iowa City)."

Emma, then a freshman, would miss the remainder of the school year.

But after a long recovery — and a year of no spring sports because of the COVID-19 pandemic — she joined the Central Lee girls golf team and played her final two years of high school. She also regained her speech and was on the honor roll her senior year.

Here's what happened May 3, 2019

It started out as an ordinary Friday morning. Tonya was already at her job as Henry County medical assistant in Mount Pleasant. Leonard, plant operations manager for the Iowa state penitentiary in Fort Madison, was just about to leave for work. Everlee and Emma were getting ready for school, with summer vacation weeks away.

Then Harvey family's lives were turned upside down.

Everlee, 13 at the time, was the first to notice something.

“I woke up that morning and Emma fell back asleep. She said her stomach hurt. I told her to get up and she said, ‘OK. OK,’" Everlee recalled in April of this year, as she broke down in tears remembering that frightful morning.

Everlee got in the shower and heard what she called "a snorting noise" and thought it was the cat throwing up on her bed. She walked in the room to see what was going on and saw her sister having a seizure on her bed.

"I yelled for my dad and we got her up off the bed," Everlee said.

When he saw his daughter, Leonard quickly realized this wasn't the same kind of seizure she had just over a year earlier, in January 2018. This time, he noticed his daughter was struggling to breathe.

He knew something was terribly wrong.

“The next thing I know, there was no breathing, no heartbeat, so I started CPR and called 911. I was trying to do all that at the same time," Leonard said. "I asked Everlee to help me get her to the floor. So we got her on the floor. I ended up doing six or seven rounds of CPR before rescue showed up. The EMTs shocked her twice and brought her back.”

An EMT since 1997, Leonard knew he had little time. He had to jump into action. His daughter's life was on the line, and it was up to him to save her.

"Just 30 compressions and two breaths. I kept doing it and checked her pulse and waited for them to show up," Leonard said of the paramedics. “Everything I asked Everlee to do, she did. The biggest thing was trying to keep Everlee calm. Here she is 13, 14 years old seeing this happen to her sister. She had to grow up pretty quick.”

The longest day, and night, for the Harvey family

Emma was taken by ambulance to Fort Madison Hospital. It was estimated she went for at least three minutes without oxygen to her brain.

The extent of the damage would be discovered later.

After arriving in Fort Madison, Emma was taken by helicopter to Iowa City, where doctors started tests to find the cause of the cardiac arrest, with Harvey stable but unconscious.

Her parents and sister, meanwhile, had to make the 1 ½-hour trip by car, all the while wondering, hoping and praying about Emma.

"It was horrible," Tonya said. "They were supposed to call us and give us an update, but they never called. We ended up calling there and they said she had arrived and they were stabilizing her."

Eventually, she was given an MRI, which revealed a normal brain function.

Some good news in the middle of such terror.

However, with her body and brain undergoing severe trauma, doctors put Emma in a medically induced coma for more than a week.

“My cousins came in from Omaha and brought (Everlee) back," Tonya Harvey said of trying to keep some normalcy in their youngest daughter's life. "She stayed with her aunt and uncle here in town and went to school. She had to be responsible and make sure she got to where she she needed to be.

“You cry. You think the worst. Then you start hoping and praying and say the sky is the limit. Just keep reaching and you’ll make it. That’s what we tell her every day. Only you can do it. You have to be determined. We do everything we can to get her to that next step.”

When doctors brought her out of the coma, the family feared the worst.

Doctors confirmed their fears, telling them Emma would never walk or talk again.

“When they tell you your kid isn’t going to walk again, you are devastated. You start thinking about what you need to do. What is the future going to be like? How are we going to take care of her? What will her life be like?" Tonya said. “It was very frustrating. You just want to take it all way and make it all better. It’s hard."

Leonard had one word to describe his reaction to the news.

“Hopelessness," he said. "What could I have done different? Could I have caught it quicker?

"That goes through my mind every day."

Emma was brought out of the coma and had no recollection of the previous 10 days. All she knew was that she was in a hospital and she was intubated, hooked up to numerous systems monitoring her heart rate, breathing and brain-wave activity.

When doctors told Emma several days later that she likely would never walk or talk again, Emma refused to accept it.

“I said I was going to," Emma said. “I only remember half of the time I was in the hospital. The time all of this happened, I don’t remember.”

Emma Harvey's long road to recovery

Emma went through extensive physical and speech therapy.

Day by day, she began to show improvement.

Then she took her first step.

"The day she started walking, I don’t think we could ever have been so excited," Tonya said. “We stood up. She kept scooting herself to the edge of the chair. I told Leonard, ‘Let’s stand her up. Let’s hold her tight and see what happens.’

"Next thing we know, she is moving her legs and trying to walk. We were overwhelmed. The nurses and doctors couldn’t get in there quick enough. It was amazing. That was the best feeling in the world, seeing her up and walking.”

Leonard said Emma has always been a fighter. She was born premature, weighing 2 pounds and 6 ounces.

“The doctors always said, 'She’s not going to do this. She’s not going to do that,'" Leonard said. "She’s always done the opposite. She’s been the exception to the rule on just about everything. With this, it’s the same thing. She goes to therapy. She works hard. She’s not a couch potato. She’s very active.”

It took a while longer for Emma Harvey to start talking again. Once again, everything happened slowly.

“She really didn’t start talking much until that weekend when she started walking," Tonya said. "They gave her a walker and she would walk the hallways and try to say 'hi' to everyone. She would talk with her eyes and her smile. She would give a big old smile and her eyes would light up.”

Through it all, the Harvey family found their lives changed forever.

Everlee was 13 at the time of her sister's cardiac arrest.

“Somebody had to grow up fast, unfortunately. We noticed it. She had to be more responsible. In the end, she knew we had to be here with Emma," Tonya Harvey said. “Life is short. You have to live each day to the fullest.”

Emma can walk now, but only for short periods. That prevents her from walking the golf course. Her speech has been impaired and she talks with a slur, but she is able to communicate effectively.

Her personality also underwent changes.

"She definitely has a different outlook on life," Everlee said of her older sister by 15 months. "She doesn’t give up. She’s very determined and hard-working. She doesn’t let her disability affect her. If someone tells her she can’t do something, she proves them wrong.”

Leonard said: “It’s been life-changing for me. Everything is different. Everything is one day at a time. I try not to live in the past, but it’s difficult. She had a little bit of a personality change with it. Her sleeping patterns changed. She used to be a night owl. Now 8:30 she’s in bed.”

The Harveys said they received overwhelming support from the community and started a Facebook page to keep everyone updated on their daughter's progress.

They even got to experience "The Wave" while at the Stead Family Children's Hospital in Iowa City as fans at Kinnick Stadium turned and waved to the children at the end of the first quarter of a football game.

“It was overwhelming. You see it on TV. It’s so awesome. But actually witnessing it and experiencing it, there aren’t words to describe the feeling you get," Tonya said. "All these people turning around to wave at these kids. A lot of these kids are alone. Their parents can’t afford to miss work to stay there with them. Just having that moment of gratitude of people turning and waving. It’s so heartwarming. It’s amazing.”

Emma trades soccer for golf

Emma loved to play soccer before her cardiac arrest. A Type 1 diabetic, she was also was a cheerleader at Central Lee High School.

With her limitations in her physical ability, Harvey no longer can play soccer. So she picked up golf. It proved to be the best therapy, both for Emma and her friends.

"When this all happened, I was a soccer fanatic. I was working hard at trying to get back to be able to play soccer again. That never happened. They got me a golf club and I started swinging it and I kind of liked it," Emma said.

In the classroom, Emma, who graduated from Central Lee in May, was on the honor roll. Leonard said she also volunteers at Central Lee and takes a para-educator class while also working with preschool kids.

The last two years, Emma golfed for her high school team.

“She’s very lucky to be able to play golf, or even to be alive, as far as that goes," Central Lee head golf coach Mike Ungerer said. “Emma has really improved. That’s the biggest thing. At first, she had a hard time hitting the ball. She had a lot of whiffs and that kind of stuff. Now she hardly does that anymore. She’s still limited in her skill level, but she gained as much back with the skill level as she could.”

Her high school career ended at a Class 3A regional first-round tournament.

She plans to take classes at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington this fall.

She served as unstoppable example of perseverance.

Three years ago, Emma Harvey nearly died.

Her heart stopped beating.

She stopped breathing.

She was told she would never walk again.

She was told she would never talk again.

And she did.

Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA TODAY Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 31 years. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: How an Iowa girl has defied the odds after nearly dying