It’s a Christmas Eve Miracle for HEB Sacker

Heroic Actions Saved His Life, but 7 Days in Coma Followed a Heart Attack in the Store

La Grange HEB employee Cecil Scholten was bagging groceries for a customer on Friday, Dec. 17, when he collapsed from a massive heart attack.

Scholten, known to many in La Grange as a helpful smiling face at the grocery store, spent a week in a coma. The doctors at Dell Seton in Austin feared the worst. Mother Rohani Weger, Cecil’s priest at St. James Epsicopal Church, came to the hospital on Dec. 23 to perform the last rites. The next day, on Christmas Eve, he woke up.

“Cecil pulled a Lazarus,” said his wife Lisa Lynch-Scholten.

Lisa credited Cecil’s coworkers at H-E-B with saving his life, especially H-E-B pharmacist Mikaela DeBarba.

“Without Mikaela, Cecil wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in Hades,” she said.

The Record reached out to the La Grange H-E-B store last Friday for comment, but the management there said they couldn’t speak without authorization from the company corporate offices, which couldn’t be reached over the New Year’s holiday. However, we spoke with others who were at the store that day, including local nurse Becky Carson.

Carson said she was waiting in line at the pharmacy when H-E-B checker and La Grange Mayor Jan Dockery came running for help.

“Jan came running to the pharmacy,” Carson said. “She said, ‘You’re medical, come with me.’”

Carson found Cecil lying on his back near one of the check out stations.

“I remember walking in the store a few minutes earlier and seeing Cecil wearing a bright tie-dye La Grange Leopards shirt,” Carson said. “I thought, that’s a neat shirt. Little did I know I would be cutting it off of him in a few minutes.”

Carson said she recognized that Cecil was suffering from a stroke or heart attack. She detected a light pulse and she said Cecil was breathing very lightly, but then he stopped breathing and his pulse disappeared.

By that time DeBarba arrived and started performing CPR. Carson said Cecil regained a light pulse and breathing, so they stopped CPR and waited for EMS to arrive. Carson said one of the store managers stayed on the phone with 911 the entire time to keep first responders apprised of Cecil’s status. Carson said DeBarba told her it was the first time she ever performed CPR outside of training.

“It may have been her first time, but she did everything right,” Carson said.

A man who was shopping came over to help. Carson said the man told them he was a retired EMS medic, but she didn’t get his name.

Cecil’s pulse and breathing stopped again, Carson said, so the man took over CPR just before EMS arrived.

Fayette County EMS Director Josh Vandever said the man was still performing CPR when his medics got there. No one the Record spoke to knows who the man is.

“When Fayette County EMS arrived, we found Mr. Scholten lying on the ground with a Good Samaritan and some H-E-B employees providing life saving CPR,” Vandever said. “Shortly after EMS and Fire crews took over, we were able to successfully resuscitate him. We then took him to a waiting Air Evac crew to be airlifted to Austin where he could be treated.”

Cecil has remained at Dell Seton ever since.

“When he first came out of the coma, I asked him if he knew what job he has, and he was way back, 15 years ago on his old job,” Lisa said. “The next day, he came back a little more. Its like his mind was fast-forwarding. I asked him again if he knew where he worked. He said, ‘H-E-B, at least I did. I don’t know if they’re going to fire me since I haven’t been to work in so long.’ I said, ‘Cecil, they’re not going to fire you. They love you over there.’”

He still has a long road to recovery. Doctors expect him to spend weeks, perhaps months in the hospital. Lisa said he still needs to undergo a triple bypass surgery. The past few days have been a struggle. Lisa said nurses had to restrain him because he got agitated and tried pulling wire and tubes from his body.

Lisa credited the community’s prayers with saving his life, but she said he needs more prayers for peace so that he can recover. She wished to especially thank Mother Rohani Weger of St. James Episcopal Church and the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Bishop of the Diocese of Texas, for their prayers. Lisa said Father Eric Hungerford, the former St. James pastor, called and offered prayers from his new parish in Philadelphia.

“Thank you to everyone who has been praying, everyone who knows and loves Cecil, their time and love was not wasted,” Lisa said.

She also wished to thank H-E-B and the St. James Church family for providing hotel rooms for her to stay in when she visits Cecil at the hospital.

“When a person’s heart stops functioning properly and/or their breathing becomes ineffective the result is often catastrophic,” said Vandever. “We were fortunate to receive a picture from Mr. Scholten’s wife of him giving everyone a big thumbs up as he recovers in Austin at the hospital. The amount of happiness and pride that outcomes like this bring to our first responders isn’t able to be put into words! We hope the best for Cecil and pray that he gets to come home soon.”

The Scholten family needs more than prayers right now. Lisa said she lost her job during the pandemic. In addition, she was recently granted emergency guardianship of a grandson. Moreover, Lisa said Cecil doesn’t have any health insurance.

The family has an account at Fayette Savings Bank in La Grange. Bank president Wade Mozisek said anyone who wants to assist the family can make a donation at the bank and they will make sure it goes into the Scholtens’ account.