A Massachusetts referee suffered a fatal health emergency and died during a girls’ basketball game Friday.
56-year-old Don McGillicuddy collapsed on the Watertown Middle School court shortly before the end of the game.
First responders, an athletic trainer, and attendees of the game surrounded him and successfully revived him with the AED.
However, McGillicuddy suffered a second heart attack on the way to the hospital and died.
“I wish I was there. I hope he wasn’t scared. I hope he wasn’t alone,” daughter Erica DeJesus said.
DeJesus said her father was a referee for 24 years and a former coach for unprivileged children.
She added that he recently lost some weight, stopped taking blood pressure medication, and had a “clean bill of health.”
“He was in the locker rooms during halftime laughing with the other refs,” she said.
