BOONE, N.C. — There's photographic evidence that proves otherwise, but Donnie Yavelak met his newborn son, Levi, for the first time on Christmas Day.
Levi was born three days earlier, and photos exist of him lying on the chest of his father's unconscious body. As one life was beginning, the future of another one was uncertain.
Donnie, a 2010 graduate of Appalachian State, knows he's fortunate to be alive. Ten months after he went into cardiac arrest in the parking lot of his pregnant wife's obstetrician's office, Donnie and Pam were in a Kidd Brewer Stadium suite cheering on his alma mater during a Family Weekend football game against Coastal Carolina.
Invited to Boone as guests of App State Athletics, the Yavelaks drove up from their home near Charleston, S.C., and watched the Mountaineers pull out a 37-29 victory to remain unbeaten in Sun Belt Conference play. It was his first visit to "The Rock" since 2014.
"It means a lot to come up to Boone," Donnie said. "There are a lot of proud moments when you walk around here."
A week earlier, Donnie sat with his son and watched on ESNP3 as App State fell behind 20-0 at Idaho before rallying for a 23-20 victory. Levi didn't make the trip to Boone, as Donnie's parents served as babysitters for the day, but Levi's never far from his family's thoughts.
Donnie was born with a pediatric heart defect. In monitoring that, he discovered he had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW), a heart rhythm disorder.
Wanting to wait until after his first child was born, he delayed undergoing a procedure to address that condition, but he went into cardiac arrest Dec. 19. That was a day after Pam's due date, as she and Donnie both made lengthy drives to meet each other at her obstetrician's office in Charleston for a scheduled appointment.
Eating lunch together in her parked vehicle, he began aspirating and lost consciousness, forcing Pam to pull her husband's unresponsive body out and call 911 as a helpful stranger began performing chest compressions. Luckily, Roper Hospital was very close to the office, and Pam remained relatively calm until she heard the squishing, squeaking sounds from the CPR machine.
"The doctor told us, if you have cardiac arrest outside of a hospital, it's less than a 3-percent chance you survive," Pam said. "The saving grace, if it had happened 10 minutes earlier, he would have been on the highway driving. We were literally across the street from the hospital."
Days later, Pam went into labor in the same hospital where her husband was being treated with therapeutic hypothermia, a cooling process that improves the chances of survival and reduces the risk of brain damage following cardiac arrest.
Dealing with pneumonia and another lung infection, he was transferred to the MUSC Health center in Charleston. Five days after he went into cardiac arrest, and after he had unknowingly been part of a picture with his new son, Donnie regained consciousness on Christmas Eve.
About 20 family members were present, and Donnie officially met Levi the following day.
"It was the best Christmas yet," he said.
Doctors were able to remove an extra piece of heart tissue that was causing Donnie's WPW and insert a subcutaneous defibrillator that monitors his heart. If he goes into cardiac arrest, the defibrillator shocks his heart and helps it start beating again.
Earlier this year, close friend and fellow Appalachian alumnus Brett Conner shared Donnie's inspirational story with App State Athletics officials, who responded by inviting him to a game.
A Gastonia native who attended App State from 2006-2010, Donnie was a student for two national championship runs, and he said he didn't miss a home game in those four years. Returning to campus earlier this month rekindled plenty of memories.
"We walk onto campus," Pam said during halftime of the Coastal Carolina game, "and he's like, 'That's where that happened, that's where this happened. I went to class in there.' He's just so proud to have gone here.
"It's really sweet, and it means a lot to me because I can see how much joy it brings to him. You just see how much his face lights up when he starts talking about the things he's done here."
The Mountaineers trailed at halftime against Coastal Carolina, but the crowd of 30,179 saw App State win another Sun Belt game and witnessed
Taylor Lamb become the school's career leader in touchdown passes.
It was a memorable day at The Rock, especially for a loyal fan who had never watched a game at Kidd Brewer Stadium from the comfort of an enclosed suite.
Family Weekend attracted a big crowd to Boone. A death-defying husband and his quick-thinking wife are loving life as first-time parents blessed with a healthy baby boy.
