Eisenhower pitcher Josh Oakley has a good cutter and a strong new heart

Josh Oakley pitched a seven-inning complete game last July for his summer team, the Wichita Reds, then looked for a place to collapse.

The Eisenhower High senior wasn’t feeling normal and hadn’t for a while. His coaches asked his parents whether his blood sugar was low or whether there was a problem with asthma.

Oakley’s stamina was non-existent. He became winded by doing the most basic things, such as getting up from a chair and going to the refrigerator for a snack.

“I was supposed to pitch a week later,” he said, “but I couldn’t get out of bed to go to the game.”

Seventeen-year-olds don’t normally have trouble getting out of bed. Something, Josh and his parents knew, was wrong.

They had no idea, though, just how serious things had become.

On a Monday, nine days after his seven-inning pitching performance in Kansas City, Oakley’s parents, Darrell and DeVona, took him to see his doctor. It was time to get to the bottom of things.

After a routine chest X-ray, there was an answer. Josh’s heart was enlarged to twice the size of a normal 17-year-old’s heart.. And it was dangerously close to shutting down.

“Josh went to church camp the last week of July last year and just had a terrible time,” DeVona Oakley said. “Now we know it was because of the altitude and the fact his heart was working at 10 percent of its capacity.”

After discovering how much the heart was enlarged, the Oakleys had to wait three days — it felt like three years — to see a cardiologist. He was admitted to Wesley Medical Center during the day on Aug. 5, then airlifted to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City at night after it was discovered Josh’s heart was more damaged than originally believed.

Doctors worked to improve Oakley’s heart function and released him with the stipulation that he had to stay in Kansas City while awaiting a heart. He was re-admitted two weeks later after a setback and remained in the hospital on a waiting list for a new heart.

“I actually got very lucky,” he said. “I was 17 at the time, so I was still on the pediatric side, which meant I could accept a heart from children under 18. But since I was considered a full-grown patient, I could also receive a heart from an adult.”

On Oct. 27, Oakley underwent heart-transplant surgery that, he said, lasted 12 hours from the time he left his hospital room to the time he returned.

Last week, Oakley pitched two innings in an Eisenhower game against Campus.

“Incredible,” Eisenhower coach Cary Dinkel said. “It was like, ‘Hey, here we go, we’re ready to roll.’ It was really cool to see him back out there.”

Oakley has played baseball since he was a tyke and the first concern he had when he knew his heart was in danger was whether he could play again.

His doctors told him he could.

“I feel just the same now as I did before we knew there was anything wrong,” Oakley said. “I still get tired fairly quickly, but that’s just from being in a hospital for four or five months, building back stamina.”

Oakley’s new heart is set on the same goal as the old one, attending Tabor College to play baseball and continuing his journey with a game he has always loved.

“It’s been what I wanted to do since I was a little kid,” he said. “From the first day I was in the hospital and they told me I needed a heart transplant, my goal was to get back to baseball.”

Oakley is the youngest of six kids and the only boy. He was born eight years after his youngest sister.

“All of his sisters are married and have kids,” DeVona said. “So he’s been kind of an only child.”

His sisters showed up in force during his illness and the family started a “Prayers for Josh Oakley” page on Facebook.

“We had hundreds and thousands of people from all over get involved with that,” DeVona said.

When Oakley returned to pitching last week, though, his parents were in Arizona for the birth of a grandchild.

Their youngest daughter, Michelle, recorded the game on her phone for her parents to watch. And middle daughter, Krista, videotaped the game and sent it to Darrell.

“All of this has been like a dream,” Darrell Oakley said. “Joshua said to me that everything felt like a dream and that he was going to wake up and pitch tomorrow.

“Sometimes I gasp to think he had his chest torn open and his heart taken out and another heart put in there. It’s incredible to know that happened.”

Darrell and DeVona braced for the worst when it looked like Josh wasn’t going to pull through. But his bad heart held out just long enough for the good one to take over.

“There are no words to describe how thankful I am for a second chance to still be here,” Oakley said. “When I was out there pitching last week, I felt like I could have kept going because of the adrenalin. But when I got home that night, I was pretty tired.”

Oakley was able to travel with the Eisenhower team to San Antonio for spring break and a mock spring training for the team.

“He’s doing awesome and the doctors have said his heart is healthy,” DeVona Oakley said. “He has no more restrictions than any other baseball player. It’s amazing.”

Dinkel said he plans to use Oakley regularly.

“He came in against Campus and threw strikes,” the Eisenhower coach said. “He doesn’t overpower you, but his offspeed stuff is good. It was a nice spot for him to get back out there.”

Oakley, utilizing a new cutter he learned from watching former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, said he can’t wait for his next chance.

“I’m going to relish every moment.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Eisenhower pitcher Josh Oakley has a good cutter and a strong new heart."