If you’re going to have a life-threatening anaphylactic episode on a crowded Japanese train during your summer abroad, it’s a good idea to have a couple of buddies nearby who are skilled life-savers.
In June, halfway through his six-week experiential learning program with Trinity University’s Japan Program, Oliver Vastine ’27 polished off a delicious plate of Himalayan curry for lunch in Tokyo, when his Asian adventure took a turn for the worse. There was definitely cashew paste in that dish; he’s highly allergic to nuts.
“I didn’t think it was anything super serious and it was really good,” the political science and economics major recalls. After lunch, the group of 14 students headed to the train station with their faculty leaders, Trinity professors Katsuo A. Nishikawa Chavez, Ph.D. and Jorge Colazo, Ph.D., and UT-San Antonio professor Makiko Fukuda, Ph.D.
“We leave and I’m not feeling too good,” Vastine recalls. “But I’m like ‘It’ll pass. I’m fine.’ Then I remember crossing this bridge and I felt even worse once I got to the other side. That’s when I knew I was going to have to use the EpiPen.”
At that point, Vastine handed his autoinjector–a rescue tool food-allergic people carry with them for emergencies–to his good friend Alex Green ’27. The political science and history double major wasn’t just the closest person. Green is also trained in administering an EpiPen from his experience as a day-camp counselor for kids back home in Houston, Texas.
The students and faculty then boarded a train to take them on an afternoon visit to a women’s military history museum. The train was well on its way when Green and other students noticed the color draining from Vastine’s face. Soon thereafter he started losing consciousness.
Green snapped into action: “That’s when I say ‘I’m gonna stick him with it,’ and then I just jabbed the EpiPen into his leg as hard as I could.” The action produced an audible pop that made shocked classmates and train passengers turn to see what was going on.
About that time, the train stopped at Shinjuku–the world’s busiest train station–just as Vastine started to collapse. The professors quickly got to Vastine’s side and called an ambulance.
Meanwhile, the third peg of Green and Vastine’s close-knit friend triad, human resources management major Ethan Ball ‘28, was disembarking from an adjacent train car when he heard his friend was in distress. “We’re all in the same Greek life organization,” Ball says. “We’re all brothers.”
Ball came to Vastine’s side and his own training as a lifeguard kicked in. He began to assess Vastine. “I checked for responsiveness. He was doing pretty good. He was at least cognitive. He was answering questions,” Ball says. “We then raised his head to keep his airway open and we waited with him so that our professors could call the paramedics.”
Emergency responders arrived and took Vastine and a professor to a local hospital, where he stayed overnight. That day’s museum trip was shelved so that professors could split up between the main group and also tend to Vastine.
Ball has made rescues before, plunging into the pool as a lifeguard to save distressed swimmers, but assisting Vastine on the train platform that day felt different. “It was definitely adrenaline because it was someone who I actually knew,” he says. “He’s one of my closest friends, so the second I heard something had happened I rushed over to make sure he was OK.”
The gravity of what had happened didn’t hit Green until much later that day, when he and Ball were talking on their walk to visit Vastine in the hospital. Ball told Green: “You saved a life today.” That’s when it sank in.
Vastine, for his part, was grateful, of course, but mostly he was just ready to move on with the Japan experience with his friends. His take away? “Live life to the fullest,” he says.