One Boyle County football tradition has been for the senior players to pick a “cause” and raise money to support that charitable endeavor. This year the beneficiary is the Epilepsy Foundation of Kentuckiana in honor of Boyle senior player Jacob Heist.
“Jacob had his first seizure in the sixth grade,” said his mother, Jennifer Heist.
This story has had a happy ending because he’s been seizure free for three years and off medication about year. He’s back playing football with his friends and his mother says he “one of the lucky one and he knows that.” He hopes sharing his story and supporting this cause will help others understand more about epilepsy, something Jennifer Heist quickly admits she did not when he had his first seizure.
They were on the interstate heading for spring break. Jacob’s oldest sister, who was 15 then, had two friends with her. His youngest sister was also in the car with him and his mother.
“I turned around and woke him up and told him to put on his seat belt,” Jennifer said. “It was just mother’s intuition or something that told me to even check on him. Next thing I knew he started seizing.”
Panic immediately hit her.
“I did not handle like an adult. I completely lost my mind. I had never seen one, didn’t know what was going on. We were in a construction zone with two concrete walls. I was barely able to pull over. I screamed for my oldest daughter. She jumped over a bucket seat and gets hold of Jacob. I pull over on the side of road and I literally thought he was dying.” “To this day it is embarrassing that I freaked out so bad. I ran in the middle of the road trying to flag down somebody and almost got hit by semi (truck).”
Her oldest daughter’s friend, Shelby Moore, called 911. Jennifer Heist said they were all “freaking out” while the 911 operator was remaining calm. “My oldest looked at him (Jacob) and said, ‘Mom you have got to get your shit together.’ At that moment I was okay. I needed her to say that,” Jennifer Heist said.
While waiting for paramedics she had to clear Jacob’s airway because he was throwing up. He bit her fingers.
“Luckily he let go but I didn’t care if he bit one or two fingers off because I was keeping my son alive,” she said.
Once the seizure stopped, panic hit her again.
“There was no response. He did not open his eyes. I know what it feels like to think your child died,” she said. “When he did open his eyes, it was like looking into a dead person’s eyes.”
After the ambulance arrived, paramedics told her Jacob had a seizure and needed to go to the hospital. They asked if she was going to ride in the ambulance but she said no one else in the car could drive and her oldest daughter would ride. However, the paramedic said she was not old enough.
“She already had her purse and told them, ‘I am going with you. I know all his medical information. You are not keeping me out of that ambulance,'” Jennifer Heist said.
The paramedics had some difficultly lifting Jacob over the concrete wall because the ambulance had to park on the other side of the interstate. Jacob’s sister hurdled the wall with her adrenaline pumping like it was.
“Even now I almost cry thinking about it, but when when we got to the hospital and I saw his pretty blue eyes and he said, ‘Momma, what is going on?’ I knew then he would be okay. He knew who I was,” Jennifer said.
Other “simple complex seizures” followed included one in the school lunch line when he wound sitting at a table with no food without remembering how he got there. Another came walking to class when a teacher stopped him because she sensed something was wrong and he didn’t know where he was supposed to be going.
“We had a lot of those plus more severe ones as well,” Jennifer said. “Any time he had a seizure his brain would shut down and he would sleep hard for hours and could not function. We told him he was so intelligent and so smart that seizures were his way of rebooting. What else could we tell him?”
He cried when he found out he could not play football his seventh-grade season. He went to every practice and wore a uniform but could not participate in games or practices.
“It was heartbreaking,” Jennifer said.
She’s happy he’s back playing now but the memories never quite go away.
“Every time they put him on that field I feel like I am going to throw up,” Jennifer said. “If he takes a shower and drops the shampoo and doesn’t answer when we yell for him we are beating on the door to make sure he’s okay. You just can’t help it.”
Those who know Jacob Heist describe him as a kind, wonderful young man. For Christmas he asked his family to buy coloring books, crayons, books and other items to take to the children’s hospital at UK to donate because he had to stay there for 72 hours when he had an electroencephalogram (EEG).
“He got everything he wanted to eat when he was there, an X-box to play with. They took great care of him and he wanted to pay it forward,” his mother said.
It’s the same with the shirts. Jennifer Heist said there was “never a doubt” since eighth grade this this year’s senior class would pick epilepsy as their cause. Shirts are being sold for $10 with $5 per shirt going to the Epilepsy Foundation of Kentuckiana.
Already a mother from Paris who has a son playing football and also has epilepsy has called to order a shirt. Same with a woman from Kansas whose son has epilepsy but cannot play.
“Jacob reached out to both boys on social media and connected with them,” Jennifer said. “He says if we can reach one person to let them know they are not alone in this then nothing else matters. We could sell 1,000 shirts but if we reach one kid to let him or her know not they are not alone, that is what matters most to Jacob and he truly means that.”
