Tim Deits possesses not an ounce of pretense. Perhaps that’s what comes from almost dying of heart failure in the prime of adolescence: Why waste precious time putting on an act?
For instance, Deits, now 19, offered without apology that he did not care one iota about the Edison High graduation ceremony about to take place Thursday, June 13.
“I hate pomp and circumstance,” he said. “It’s all so complicated – and hot. I’m doing it for my parents.”
Nor does he beat around the bush regarding his less than stellar GPA. “I passed everything,” Deits said. “That’s about it.”
The best thing about graduating from high school is, well, getting out of high school, he shrugged.
“I feel like I have better things to do than sit in classes I’m not interested in,” Deits said. “The only class I enjoyed my senior year was government.”
None of this signifies apathy. Rather, his passions simply lie elsewhere.
“I put all my energy into cars and work,” said Deits, who is already set to go from part- to full-time at a company that specializes in upgrading Porsche engines.
Deits’ path looked quite different in the fall of his sophomore year. Then, the 16-year-old athlete was consumed with roller hockey. Then, he dreamed of joining the Army as a weapons mechanic.
On Nov. 11, 2016, his life took a startling turn by almost coming to an abrupt end. While lifting weights in the garage of his Huntington Beach home, Deits collapsed on the floor.
His “arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy,” in which fat and fibrous tissue replace muscle, caught all concerned unawares. “Usually, the first symptom of ARVC is cardiac arrest,” Deits noted.
Fortunately, his parents discovered him within minutes. Ted Deits preformed CPR on his son until the Huntington Beach Fire Department arrived.
Paramedics defibrillated Deits’ heart twice without success. “I vividly remember thinking, ‘A family just lost a son today,’” recalled Capt. Travis Ponder.
But after trying again in the ambulance, they detected a faint heartbeat.
Then came the real lifesaver: a newly approved heart pump for right-sided arrhythmia, which is relatively rare. More patients experience trouble with the heart’s left side.
Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach had acquired the device, called an Impella, just one month before. Deits became the first child in the United States to undergo the procedure.
A few days later, the teen awoke from an induced coma with his sense of humor fully intact – alleviating concerns of brain damage due to loss of oxygen during the episode. Doctors implanted a pacemaker to regulate his heart rhythm.
Deits returned home on Thanksgiving Day – although not to his former routine. He tried to go back to school for second semester, and even to his hockey team. But he soon found he couldn’t focus.
“I pulled out after two months,” he said. “I was still adjusting to heart medications. I felt tired and depressed.”
While he was recovering, his parents bought him a 17-year-old Lexus SUV that constantly needed fixing. “That kept my brain active,” Deits said. “When I’m good at something, I can concentrate, and I’m good at mechanics.”
Over his final two years of school, Deits managed to make up the lost semester. He dropped hockey, but helped coach the junior varsity team his senior year.
He and his girlfriend skipped prom. “It’s gotten to be ridiculously expensive,” Deits opined, with his characteristic bluntness.
Deits appreciates that his parents have not tried to keep him in a bubble, even letting him go skydiving with his sister Kellie for her 21st birthday last November.
“They say they don’t worry, but I know they do,” he said. “If I were my kid, I’d be worried about me.”
College remains a question mark for Deits.
“I’m going to wait a while and see if I miss school,” he said. “For now, my plan is to keep working and further myself in the automotive industry.”
That’s just fine with his parents, who, like their son, have acquired a certain aura of zen.
“Things that seemed like a big deal before are not a big deal now,” said mom Michelle Deits. “We are just very grateful for every day.”
Despite his lack of enthusiasm about walking across stage in cap and gown, Deits recognizes the significance of a high school diploma.
“I’m more than proud of myself,” he said. “It’s one of my greatest accomplishments.”
