Nurse Saves Pickleball Player's Life at Texas Rec Center

Tyler Hobson doesn't usually go inside the Brushy Creek Community Center in Round Rock, Texas. On February 5, 2025, she arrived early to pick up her 10-year-old twins and decided to watch the end of their basketball practice, a choice that would save a life.

As she walked through the gym with her sons, Hobson spotted a crowd gathered around Jonathan Goetz, who had just collapsed on the pickleball court. The 62-year-old's face was gray, he wasn't breathing, and he had no pulse.

Hobson, a nurse manager at St. David's Round Rock Medical Center, handed her keys and purse to her sons and took charge. "Oh my gosh, this is for real," she thought as she started chest compressions.

She had performed CPR three times at work but never "out in the wild," as medical professionals call it. The stakes couldn't have been higher: survival chances drop 10% for every minute CPR is delayed.

Someone grabbed the automated external defibrillator from the gym wall while Hobson coordinated with 911. Despite being just 5 feet tall and Goetz towering over 6 feet, adrenaline powered her through the proper 2-inch deep compressions.

Eight minutes felt like forever. Hobson delivered two rounds of compressions and one AED shock, preparing to give rescue breaths when Goetz's eyes suddenly opened.

He was confused and angry about being woken up, arguing with EMTs about going to the hospital. Hobson enlisted his wife Lori to convince him, worried he might refuse treatment entirely.

Sunny's Take

A year later, Goetz and Hobson play pickleball together at the same court where he nearly died. Their families have become close friends, bonded by that February night when an early arrival changed everything.

Goetz has overhauled his lifestyle with better nutrition and more exercise after doctors discovered arterial blockages. He still plays pickleball several times a week, grateful for each game.

Both champion CPR training for everyone now. Only about 10% of cardiac arrests outside hospitals end in survival, but that number could climb if more people knew what to do in those critical first minutes.

Hobson's decision to walk inside that night instead of waiting in her car gave Goetz a second chance at life.