'She's my guardian angel': Umpire honored at Polar Park along with doctor who saved his life

WORCESTER — The last time Korey Pontbriand umpired a baseball game, he died.

But thanks to the fast action of Dr. Jennifer LaFemina, who helped revive Pontbriand on July 11 after he stopped breathing and lost consciousness in the wake of being struck by a ball during a Little League game, Pontbriand is alive.

And on Tuesday, the two reunited at Polar Park and were honored as the ‘Hometown Heroes’ prior to the WooSox game .

“If she wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be talking to me right now,” Pontbriand, 41, said. “I literally owe this woman my life.

“She’s my guardian angel.”

A baseball umpire for the past 15 years, Pontbriand was hit by a foul ball in the neck while working behind home plate during a Little League game earlier this month in Oxford.

Although he was initially in a little pain, Pontbriand continued to umpire. Soon after, the Spencer native and Southbridge resident lost the ability to talk — so he switched from being behind home plate to being a base umpire.

“At that point, I’m not going to lie to you, I was in quite a bit of pain,” said Pontbriand, who has two sons and a wife.

LaFemina, an associate professor of surgery and a surgical oncologist at UMass Chan Medical School, started noticing signs that Pontbriand was struggling physically as she watched one of her sons play in the baseball game. The endearing ump was stumbling in the field and wasn’t running properly.

Towards the end of the game, LaFemina finally convinced Pontbriand to leave the field and go to the hospital. But as Pontbriand sat down to get checked out, he went into cardiac arrest.

“I fell directly backwards and lost complete consciousness,” Pontbriand said. “I had no pulse, and I wasn’t breathing at all.”

So LaFemina sprang into action and administered CPR.

“I thought he was going to die,” said LaFemina, who lives in Southborough.

Luckily, LaFemina helped bring Pontbriand back to life.

Emergency responders then arrived in Oxford and rushed Pontbriand to UMass Memorial Medical Center as the baseball umpire briefly regained consciousness in the ambulance before being intubated for two days.

Despite suffering tissue damage around his spinal cord and needing to wear a neck brace for 24 hours a day, Pontbriand was released from the hospital on July 22 and hopes to return to umpiring in a little over a month.

“I’m doing OK. Just pretty much trying to take it day-by-day for the most part,” Pontbriand said. “Trying to get myself back to where I need to be to realistically get on the field.

“I just love being out there and teaching these kids the purity of baseball.”

On Tuesday, Pontbriand and LaFemina were honored ahead of the WooSox’ 11-6 win over the Buffalo Bisons. The former — wearing a black umpire shirt — tossed out the ceremonial first pitch while the latter in LaFemina — wearing a blue T-shirt that said “baseball mom” on it — stood nearby.

The two then walked off the field together — arm in arm.

“(Jennifer) is my family now,” Pontbriand said, “and it's going to be that way until God graciously enough takes me off this planet.”

“It's been life changing in many ways and has really given me gratitude for the things we tend to take for granted,” LaFemina said. “Life can change in a minute, and you never know. So our job is to be kind and to do good, because you never know how life's going to change tomorrow.

“I'm grateful to be part of his journey right now.”

And Pontbriand is grateful that LaFemina brought him back to life on July 11.

Pontbriand now has a tattoo on his left arm with a baseball, angel wings and ‘Dr JL’ etched above and ‘My guardian angel’ written below in dedication to the woman who saved his life.

“She is my guardian angel because I would not be breathing and talking to you right now if she did not come to my aid when it happened,” Pontbriand said. “This is my family now and until my last breath we are going to be family.”

— A GoFundMe account has been set up to raise money to help Korey Pontbriand pay for his ongoing medical bills. Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'She's my guardian angel': Umpire honored at Polar Park along with doctor who saved his life