'This is why we're doing this': Holden family honor son's legacy by handing out AED machines ahead of WooSox game

WORCESTER — Deb and Ralph Thibodeau don’t want any other families to go through what they did 13 years ago.

On July 18, 2011, their son, Joshua “Moose” Thibodeau, died from a sudden cardiac event while attending a soccer camp at Wachusett Regional High School.

Josh was just 12 years old.

On Friday, Deb and Ralph Thibodeau were honored at Polar Park as part of a ceremony prior to the Worcester Red Sox’ 12-5 win over the Durham Bulls. Through the Josh Thibodeau Helping Hearts Foundation, the two Holden residents donated 11 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to various Worcester Little League organizations.

It was an emotional day for the Thibodeau family.

“This is exciting, but for me, it just goes back to when we lost Josh, and this is why we're doing this,” Deb said. “It’s about raising awareness that these seemingly healthy kids are running around and have potentially fatal heart conditions, and you don’t know until you know.”

An abnormal similarity

A day before his 12th birthday, PJ Barry was at Little League baseball practice when his childhood friend, Josh Thibodeau, died unexpectedly.

“We were very close, best friends,” Barry said. “Just normal little kids.”

With Josh’s parents setting up health screenings at Wachusett Regional a year later to educate people on early warning signs of undetected heart conditions, Barry participated in the screening.

That’s when Barry was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a heart condition that causes the heart to beat abnormally fast for periods of time. 

“I had no idea what it was,” said Barry, now 24. “I was sitting there with my mom, and two or three doctors came in and told us, and we both just broke down.”

For a few years, Barry dealt with heart palpitations that would randomly come out of the blue.

Then, after taking a hit as a wide receiver during a football game with St. Peter-Marian, Barry had an episode that lasted nearly 15 minutes. So in 2015, Barry underwent heart ablation surgery.

“Luckily, knock on wood, I haven’t had anything ever since,” Barry said. “My heart is normal for me, is what they like to say. Still a little abnormality but nothing too crazy.”

“That’s the message,” Deb said. “Look how healthy (PJ) is. An athlete, a multi-sport athlete, you just don’t know until you know.”

Full-circle moment for everyone

Fast forward to Friday, Barry, the WooSox director of corporate partnership management, walked Deb and Ralph Thibodeau out onto the playing surface at Polar Park to present AED machines to a handful of Little League presidents from Worcester.

The ceremony presented a full-circle moment for Barry.

“The Thibodeaus did so much for me growing up, and I can’t (really thank them for) what they did for me,” he said. “There are so many stories of people like Josh, and it happens, it’s not something that we want to happen, and it’s things like this that can make things avoidable.”

Over the past 11 years, Deb and Ralph Thibodeau — through the Josh Thibodeau Helping Hearts Foundation — have handed out 108 AEDs to youth sports organizations across the state.

They want to continue to raise awareness in preventing sudden cardiac arrest in children and adolescents, and provide charitable assistance to individuals, families and organizations.

All in the memory of Josh.

“Our ultimate goal is to have no parent feel like we feel,” Ralph said. “And that’s kind of it in a nutshell.”

—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Josh Thibodeau Helping Hearts Foundation donates AED machines