Thirteen months after helping save the life of a bus driver having a seizure, Hampden Academy football coach John Sparacio has had his own medical crisis.

Sparacio has been hospitalized since Thursday afternoon after suffering some kind of cardiac arrhythmia during the team’s practice.

“I felt dizzy and my heart kept going faster and faster. Then I started getting pains in my chest,” Sparacio said from his hospital bed Sunday afternoon. “I sat down, but they wouldn’t go away, so I told the coaches I had to leave and drove myself over to the police department, where they have an ambulance bay.”

The medics on duty gave Sparacio an injection, but it failed to bring his heart rate down. They then decided to take him to Eastern Maine Medical Center’s emergency room.

“They gave me a stronger shot there, but that didn’t work, so then they hooked me up to a machine and shocked me to get it down to a more normal level,” Sparacio said. “After that, it went right back to where it should be.”

The 41-year-old coach, whose heart rate (240) was approximately three times higher than it should be before treatment, was resting comfortably on Sunday while watching the Boston Red Sox playoff and New England Patriots games on TV.

“I’m tired, but my blood pressure’s better,” he said. “I’m still being monitored and tested, and I’m hooked up to some machines, so I’m taking naps and clicking … Naps and clicking.”

Sparacio, who said there is a history of heart problems in his family, was unable to attend Hampden’s Friday practice or Saturday game. He’s not sure when he will be released, but thinks it could be later this week and is hopeful he can be back on the sidelines for the team’s Oct. 18 homecoming game.

“The kids were pretty down on Friday,” Sparacio said. “My son Kyle took it a little hard because I wasn’t there, but I talked to the coaches and Saturday, they were doing better,” he said. “The coaches and players have been coming by to visit and the team sent a card that everybody signed.”

Unfortunately, the Broncos could not overcome the loss of five starters – four of them two-way starters – who missed the game due to injuries or team rules violation suspensions and were beaten by Oak Hill in Sabattus 7-0.

Although he couldn’t be there, Sparacio still managed to follow each play as his coaches patched him into their headsets via phone.

“I got to follow along, and I even helped them out a little with play-calling, but the nurse didn’t like it very much,” he said with a chuckle.