USU Football player Josh Davis saved by athletic trainers

LOGAN — On Thursday afternoon at Utah State Football practice, things went from a game to life and death. There was a medical emergency: redshirt freshman wide receiver Josh Davis suffered “non–traumatic sudden cardiac arrest” while warming up for practice.

USU athletic trainers jumped into action. Assistant athletic trainer Kendra Gilmore was first on the scene to start evaluating Davis. Meanwhile, Mike Williams, associate athletics director for sports medicine, rushed over and noticed Davis “gasping for breaths.” Gilmore talked to him, trying to help him breathe, but knew he was going to need more help.

Brady Mollner, another assistant athletic trainer, brought over an automated external defibrillator and the team hooked Davis up to the machine while administering CPR. Gilmore did breaths while Williams did chest compressions.

They were able to revive Davis and transitioned care to EMTs, who transported Davis to Logan Regional Hospital where he was stabilized with “initial critical treatment.” Afterward, Davis was taken to the intensive care unit at McKay–Dee Hospital in Ogden to receive “treatment with therapeutic hypothermia to lower the body temperature to preserve his neurological function.”

The day after Davis was rushed to the hospital, USU announced he had been upgraded from critical to fair condition. On Saturday, USU Football tweeted a video of teammates visiting Davis in the hospital, which included a message of gratitude from him to fans.

“What’s up, Aggie Nation?” Davis said in the video. “This is Josh Davis coming in. Feeling a lot better. Just wanted to thank you guys for all the support and all the prayers, and I can’t wait to be back soon. Go Aggies.”

Aggie Family 💙#AggiesAllTheWay | #TOGETHER pic.twitter.com/tow4Gfu0S3

— USU Football (@USUFootball) March 25, 2023

A week later, Davis was able to walk on his own into a press conference alongside his parents Chrissy and Matt Davis, the athletic trainers, head coach Blake Anderson and Jerry Bovee, USU’s interim athletics director, on March 30.

His message in the press conference was focused on gratitude.

“Just want to thank God for the opportunity to be here standing in front of you guys today,” Josh said. “Exactly a week ago, I was lying on the field fighting for my life. Now I’m able to walk in this room and talk to all of you, so I’m just very blessed to be here.”

He also made sure to thank Williams, Gilmore and Mollner specifically.

“Without the three of them, I really would not be here today,” Josh said. “There’s no question they truly saved my life. Every doctor I’ve spoken to during the last week said that the CPR 110% saved my life. So I can’t thank you guys enough, and I’ll never forget what you guys did for me.”

Josh’s parents rushed to the hospital from Carlsbad, California to support him. They said they were grateful for USU and the hospitals for keeping them updated until they could get there.

Matt said it was “unbelievable what everyone did.”

“When you send your first kid away to college, it’s always a little nerve–wracking,” Matt said. “Then when it’s an athlete, it’s even more so. You’re always worried — you know, ‘Who’s watching them? Who’s taking care of them?’ And I can say to anybody that’s watching this, that’s not something you have to worry about in Utah State.”

To thank the athletic trainers that saved their son, the Davis family is making a donation to start an endowment for sports medicine in USU Athletics in the names of Williams, Gilmore and Mollner.

“We hope anyone watching this will consider also making a gift in support,” Matt said.

He added that he hopes people will join them to grow an endowment that can help fund USU sports medicine for years.

While the athletic trainers were administering CPR, Anderson was on the ground next to Josh, yelling and encouraging him to keep fighting for his life. Anderson said he did this because his own father told him that while he was being worked on during a heart attack, he could hear the medic and his wife, even though he couldn’t respond.

“Every time I yelled his name and every time I told him to keep fighting, he tried to open his eyes, and Kendra (Gilmore) was doing the same thing,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t going to quit. I just wanted him to know he wasn’t alone and that we were right there fighting with him and that people were helping him. So I just felt like that as long as he keeps fighting, I’m going to keep fighting with him. I don’t know if it made any difference at all, but I think we’re all products of our environment, so having been through that a couple of times and had those conversations, I just felt in my heart he could hear me, and I wasn’t going to quit on him.”

Anderson said he was grateful “God stepped in” to save Josh.

About a year ago, Josh had a previous medical incident that took him off the field. Williams called it a “seizure–like episode,” but Anderson said “a lot of doctors looked at him and cleared him to come back to play” afterward.

“Hadn’t had an issue since,” Anderson said.

Anderson believes that Josh’s preexisting condition may have started the emergency during warmups. The official medical cause of his cardiac arrest was unknown by Williams at the time of publication.

As for his future on the gridiron, it’s not looking too bright.

“As far as the doctors that I talked to, the short answer for playing football in the future is probably not, but I’m kind of not really worried about that right now,” Josh said. “Kind of just taking it slow. Taking it day by day and we’ll see what happens in the future, but obviously, as Coach said, I’m always going to be grateful to be a part of this Aggie family.”

Utah State Football canceled practice on Friday after the emergency and took the weekend to see how Josh progressed. After receiving good news over the weekend, they took the field inside the Stan Laub Indoor Training Center on Monday.

“They’re grateful that he’s OK,” Anderson said about the vibe of his players at practice. “It’s a great teaching opportunity too, just to remind guys that life is short and fragile, and you need to make sure that you’re appreciative of every opportunity you get.”

With positive news, USU Football players were able to focus on the work they needed to do on the football field, according to Anderson.

“I think you got to keep it in perspective, and I feel like the guys have done that,” Anderson said.

This isn’t the first time Williams has helped save the life of an Aggie student–athlete. On Dec. 4, 2012, Williams used an automated external defibrillator to revive former USU Basketball player Danny Berger after he collapsed during practice from “full cardiac arrest.” The situation with Davis was different because it wasn’t immediately clear he needed CPR, but Williams and his team were ready.

“A lot of people go their whole career and never have it happen,” Williams said. “For it to happen twice here — it’s a little bit unusual. We’re hoping it never happens again here, but the big thing is hopefully he recovers and has a full recovery and is able to come back and be a part of Utah State.”

These kinds of situations are stressful for athletic trainers, but Williams said their training had prepared them to work together to administer care efficiently, even though Utah State has the smallest athletic training staff in the Mountain West Conference.

“There’s a lot of adrenaline. There’s a lot of pressure in those situations, but you just kind of fall back on your training,” Williams said. “For us to be able to do that and work as efficiently as we did, it’s pretty impressive, and it’s an actual credit to them and their training.”

Anderson said he has a “tremendous amount of confidence” in his athletic trainers.

“They poured their heart and soul into trying to save the kid, and it’s exactly what happened,” Anderson said.

Anderson said “it’s a challenge” to have such a tumultuous past year or two with incidents on and off the field that are bigger than football.

“Some days are better than others,” Anderson said. “We’re fortunate. We get to do life through football, and it’s a great teacher. As we’re doing that, as you mentioned, life’s not going to stop, and you’re going to have huge issues that pop up, huge adversity that pops up, and we’ve had our share and I’ve had my share. Just try to let God shine through it. Try to keep loving on each other. It’s more than football, though, there’s no doubt. I mean, the football is what we get to do because we love it, but we’re doing life together and trying to take every teaching opportunity we can.”

Anderson said he’s been “amazed” and “blessed” because his players “give back just as much as they take.”

“They’re the first ones to step in my office and hug my neck on a bad day,” Anderson said. “Send me a text or a song or a scripture or a prayer. ‘Hey Coach, I got you today.’ So I mean, we’re leaning on each other. They’re not just leaning on me. I’m leaning on them just as much and I think that’s when you really have something special — and this group’s family.”

The Aggies have their first scrimmage of spring camp on April 8 at 1 p.m. inside Maverik Stadium. The event is open to the public.