Gratitude for a child saved
Six-year-old student at East Boston school is recovering after a sudden collapse in gym
More than two-dozen first-graders were squealing and bouncing balls that mid-February morning in the gym at East Boston Central Catholic School when 6-year-old Olivia Quigley suddenly collapsed. No one saw it coming. The little girl with the strawberry blonde hair and no front teeth had been in perfect health.
Teacher Robert Casaletto rushed to the girl's side, only to feel her pulse fade away. He thought of his own young daughter, the same age, and got to work.
Using their CPR training, Casaletto and kindergarten teacher Kathleen Carabine pumped the girl's tiny frame.
It was an effort that doctors and emergency workers later credited with saving Olivia's life. Firefighters and emergency workers arrived shortly afterward and shocked the girl with a defibrillator as a school administrator watched and said a Hail Mary aloud.
Olivia's heartbeat returned.
Yesterday afternoon in the little girl's hospital room, Olivia's parents, Cathy and Joe Quigley, met the teachers who saved their daughter.
"There are no words to express my gratitude," Cathy Quigley said. "Olivia had angels on earth taking care of her."
It has been one month since Olivia's collapse and hospitalization, and doctors are still searching for a cause. They recently implanted an adult-sized defibrillator in her chest as such occurrences in children are so rare.
Joe Quigley recalled driving his daughter and 12-year-old son, Alex, to school that day, Friday, Feb. 13. Alex asked him if he was superstitious and Joe said he wasn't. Both children were adjusting to life at the school, having transferred there last year after St. Mary's school in East Boston closed.
In the gym later that morning, Ron Pardi, a gym and music teacher at the school, led the first-graders in a ball-bouncing exercise.
When Olivia suddenly dropped to the floor, Pardi went to her and found her still breathing. He went to the office to call for help and sent another student to fetch Casaletto from his sixth-grade classroom nearby.
Casaletto, 38, rushed to the gym fearing something had happened to his daughter, also a first-grader in the class. He went to help Olivia as the other first-graders watched in stunned silence. One began to cry. Then, he sent them into another room.
"That was the hard thing for me," Casaletto said. "Part of me wanted to go hug my daughter, but I thought, Olivia needs me more."
Carabine rushed in minutes later. She saw Olivia on the floor, her skin gray. Carabine knew the girl well, having met her at a summer camp last year where she was teaching.
"She took a couple of breaths and just stopped," Carabine said. "I just looked at Bobby in disbelief. It's not something you ever want to see."
Neither Casaletto nor Carabine, both veteran teachers, had ever given CPR before.
Carabine put her mouth over Olivia's and gave her two breaths. Casaletto gave her 30 chest compressions. The two alternated the routine for 7 minutes until help arrived and emergency workers took over.
Then everyone watched and waited.
Joe Quigley arrived at the school just in time to see his daughter's breathing restored. He pulled out his cellphone and called his wife, a scientist at Biogen Idec Inc. in Cambridge. Cathy Quigley rushed to the hospital, where her daughter had been taken, before learning all the details.
"When we got to the ER at Mass. General, they said they believed she had a heart attack," she said. "It was absolutely inconceivable to me. I still have a hard time accepting this happened."
Exactly what happened to Olivia continues to baffle doctors, she said. After Olivia's collapse, she remained in intensive care for eight days, followed by 2 1/2 weeks in critical care. Last week, she was well enough to move to Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton. Exactly when she can return home to the family's house in Winthrop isn't known yet, but her parents hope it will be soon.
"MGH called her their miracle child," Joe Quigley said sitting in his daughter's hospital room yesterday.
There have been lingering side effects, including short-term memory loss for the child. She doesn't remember the day of her collapse and often not even her last meal. She is also struggling with depth perception, making it hard for her to move up and down stairs with ease, and much of her vocabulary has been lost.
Cathy Quigley said she wanted to thank dozens of people - doctors, nurses, hospital staffers, teachers, friends, and neighbors - even family that flew in from England - for their help. The experience has given her faith that her daughter will recover fully.
"She's still Olivia, but she's not yet my little Olivia," she said.
Yesterday afternoon in her hospital room, Olivia behaved like a typical little girl, coloring pictures and singing songs. She greeted Casaletto and Carabine, as well as her first-grade teacher, Lauren Rozzi, with open arms. They gave her gifts, stuffed animals and notes, from her first-grade classmates. She wiggled two of her loose teeth for them.
Carabine said she feels "blessed" that she could help. East Boston Central Catholic School is planning a daylong CPR training next weekend, and she thinks it will be more popular than ever. She and Casaletto were grateful they had taken it.
"You never think you're going to use it," she said. "I think more people will go. And I think everybody will pay closer attention."
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com. 
