Last week, MacArthur High School athletic trainer –Chad Sutherland had to jump into action.
“This was my first and hopefully my last to every use It,” said Sutherland.
He and another trainer, Jeff Schmidt, worked together to use an automated external defibrillator went a student lost consciousness, last Tuesday.
They worked quickly to help resuscitate the high school junior who they said had no known history of heart issues.
Sutherland says the student with doing typical drills with other students outside.
When he returned to the building, he had difficulty breathing and collapsed, said Sutherland.
When they opened the AED case, the trainers also immediately dialed 9-1-1 to get EMS on the way.
The AED uses voice commands to help you know what to do.
“You can see it’s telling you where to place each pad,” said Schmidt.
Sutherland hopes others won’t be afraid to get basic CPR training to help someone in a medical emergency.
Chad Sutherland, “If this was your brother or sister or mom or dad, you would want to act so if someone is having problems you would want to help them out as well.”
SAFD Fire Chief Charles Hood will stop by MacArthur high school Tuesday to thank the trainers. He considers them heroes.
The chief says AED or automatic external defibrillators are in many public places like schools, airports, malls or stadiums.
“about 350-thousand people suffer heart attacks every single year,” Hood said.
He hopes others will consider basic CPR training to know how to use an AED. It takes just four minutes he says, for someone in cardiac arrest to lose oxygen to the brain.
But knowing how to use the device, until medical professionals arrive, could help save a life.
“It can happen at any age.
Anywhere. It can happen anytime. What this does is turn an everyday person into a hero because you’re going to be able to follow directions,” said Chief Hood.
Parents send their children to school every day assuming they’ll return home. But that didn’t happen Tuesday for the family of a MacArthur High School football player who briefly lost his life on campus.
Brianna Major will never forget the phone call she received about her brother, Kenny Major.
“They told me they just had to do CPR on him and I lost it,” Brianna recalled.
Kenny collapsed on the football field. The details were hard for her to hear.
“His heart did stop. He wasn’t breathing. They did have to revive him,” Brianna said as she held back tears.
MacArthur trainers Chad Sutherland and Jeffrey Schmidt are used to seeing students injured or sick, not dead.
“It got real pretty quick when I came out here and Coach Sutherland had already begun compressions and I knew he wasn’t breathing just by looking at him. He was already becoming pale,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt grabbed an AED. Using the device and providing multiple rounds of CPR brought Kenny back to life.
“I kind of feel like I was floating outside of myself and just doing all the procedures and everything we had been taught,” Sutherland said.
“There was a brief time my brother was gone, and not just from me and my family, but from this world. It was the worst pain I ever felt,” Brianna said.
Kenny is now recovering in the hospital. To his sister, the two and the coaches who helped her brother are heroes.
“I don’t feel like a hero. I feel like that’s what I’m trained to do and what I went to school for, why I do what I do,” Schmidt said.
“I don’t feel like a hero, I just did my job,” Sutherland said.
“When the emergency happened, our guys did what they’re trained to do and they saved this young man’s life,” said Ben Cook, MacArthur’s head football coach.
Brianna has this advice for everyone who hears her brother’s story:
“No matter what happened, no matter what your sibling ruined in your personal mind, make sure they know you love them,” she said.
Parents of high school athletes wanting to have their child’s heart screened have an opportunity this weekend. August Hearts will conduct screenings at Alamo Stadium on Saturday.
Article reposted from My SA
Author: Vagney Bradley
Thanks to the quick actions of two Cy-Fair Independent School District employees, a district groundskeeper’s life was saved.
Melvin Doran, groundskeeper at Cypress Woods High School, and Louie Villarreal, athletic trainer at Cypress Woods, were recognized at the trustees meeting on Jan. 23 for saving their fellow employee’s life during the holiday break.
On the morning of Dec. 29, Doran noticed his co-worker leaned back against the mower near the tractor shed, suffering from an apparent heart attack. At that time, Jim Sikora was unresponsive.
“My heart was beating loud enough that I could hear it in my ear drum,” Doran said. “For some reason, I was totally calm, aware of what was going on, and something just took over.”
As Doran called for help to the Wildcats practicing on the nearby soccer field, he cleared Sikora’s airway and performed CPR. The soccer coaches called Villarreal, activating Cypress Woods’ emergency action plan.
In the crucial moments that were to follow, Villarreal joined Doran carrying an automated external defibrillator machine, delivering a shock while he and Doran continued two-person CPR. The two men continued the resuscitation until first responders arrived to provide further assistance.
“It is a surreal feeling to know I was able to help someone when they needed it most. There wasn’t much time to think about it,” Villarreal said. “I let my training take over and made sure I did everything I needed to do to have the best possible outcome.”
During the board meeting, members of Sikora’s family spoke of their appreciation they had for the men and their quick actions to save their loved one’s life.
“It was an amazing honor to be recognized by the school board. Also, his sisters were there and they also gave us a gift. It was very humbling,” Doran said. “I am just more happy that he is alive and got a chance to continue living.”
Doran and Villarreal both feel their teamwork helped save Sikora’s life. Both men felt honored to be recognized by the school board.
“It was a humbling experience to be recognized by such a prestigious group of people such as the CFISD school board, Superintendent Dr. Mark Henry, Athletic Director Ray Zepeda, and many district administrators,” Villarreal said. “However, I believe the best part was having a positive outcome with the whole situation. Also, having the opportunity to meet the family members of the individual was an extremely fulfilling experience.”
The American Heart Association plans to present both men with a HeartSaver Hero Award during the Feb. 2 Cypress Woods staff meeting. The American Heart Association’s HeartSaver Hero Award recognizes people that have stepped in to save a life by performing CPR.
“The fact of knowing I saved someone’s life is amazing, but I was just happy that I was able to be there to help him,” Doran said.
Two hours before last Friday’s basketball games, Rancho Bernardo High’s head athletic trainer, Robbie Bowers, reviewed with his team its emergency protocols.
They do the review frequently so — on the rare occasion their skills might be needed — they are ready to act, he said.
The fourth quarter of the boys game against Westview became that rare occasion.
“I heard a commotion going on and my wife sitting nearby yelled something to me,” he said. “I started to rip my jacket off and went up (the bleachers).”
Robbie Bowers (Courtesy photo)
There he found a Westview staff member’s grandparent — Rancho Bernardo resident Bill Parkhurst — in medical distress, which Bowers said he identified as cardiac arrest.
“I immediately started chest compressions, my intern from SDSU brought the defibrillator and my athletic trainer prepped his chest,” Bowers said on Monday when asked to recall the incident. Among others who stepped in to help was Westview’s athletic trainer, Christina Scherr.
Parkhurst had been sitting on the bleachers’ top tier with the wall behind him, so that was the perfect spot to perform the lifesaving actions, Bowers said, adding it would have been difficult to move him.
An automatic external defibrillator — AED for short — indicates if the person needs to be shocked to get the heart going. It indicated a shock was needed and after the AED applied electricity to the man’s body Bowers said he began chest compressions again. After 30 seconds, Parkhurst started to show signs of life, making sounds and, when asked, was able to correctly say his first name.
As all this was going on, another staff member called 911 and additional staffers went to the two campus entrances to meet paramedics and direct them to the correct venue, Bowers said.
Bowers, who is certified in medical procedures through the National Athletic Trainers Association, said there is a difference between sudden cardiac arrest and heart attack. He said the latter is triggered by a blockage in the heart’s arteries and in many cases the person does not lose consciousness. In sudden cardiac arrest the heart stops, the person loses consciousness and if the heart is not returned to a normal rhythm the person could die within minutes.
In his three decades in the field (27 years at RB High), Bowers said this is the second time he has been called into action like this. The first was about 10 years ago while at a game in Riverside. In that case the man had an extensive history of heart attacks and cardiac disease, and an AED was not available. “The ref died doing what he loved,” Bowers said.
This time, the result was dramatically different. Bowers said he heard through a third-party that the man is hospitalized but doing well, and that night his family told Bowers that his swift efforts “appear to have saved his life.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Barbara Jean Parkhurst said her husband was undergoing surgery. She said she had not wanted her husband of more than six decades to attend the game, but is now glad he did because if he had collapsed at home the outcome might have been different. She credits Bowers and the others with saving his life.
While trained in how to use an AED, Bowers said this was his first time to deliver a shock. He said it is so simple even someone without training could do it.
“It turned out (using an AED) was exactly like we trained,” Bowers said. “It’s that easy. You do not have to be specially trained.”
He said RB High has three AEDs — one in the nurse’s office, another at the pool’s lifeguard tower and a third in the gym, near his office, which due to protocol he takes to games, keeping it nearby just in case.
“(Robbie) and his team’s response was perfect,” said RB High Principal Dave LeMaster. “They basically saved a life. … I was impressed to see them in action.”
Bowers said because of their frequent protocol reviews everyone knew what role they had so the rescue was “seamless.” However, Bowers said he couldn’t sleep that night and he reviewed the situation repeatedly to see what they could do better in the future. The team has also discussed its efforts.
“We could improve on crowd control, because it was a little bit of an issue hearing the prompts,” Bowers said, adding he was so focused on what he was doing that he did not realize the game was stopped. “But we did have a lot of support in maintaining modesty of the patient.”
He added, “Every experience is a learning opportunity. I’m very proud of (my team’s) response.”
An automated external defibrillator (AED) was used to save the life of a student at South Effingham High School on Dec. 12, marking the first time the equipment was used to save a student.
The student participating in after-school soccer conditioning collapsed, became unconscious and stopped breathing, Assistant Superintendent Yancy Ford said in a report to the school board.
CPR was started while the AED was brought to the scene and 911 called. The student was shocked twice before responding and was transported to Memorial Hospital, Ford said.
“He was stable and doing well,” he said. “He was later sent to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for testing and followup treatment. This was the first time we have needed to use the AED on a student. The SEHS staff in attendance responded quickly and appropriately and with the help of the AED saved the young man’s life.”
Staff members involved in the rescue were presented with Hero Award certificates, as part of Georgia Project Heart Save.
A Waunakee JV basketball player will receive a warm reception today when he is released from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa.
Michael Saxby, 16, was competing in a game Dec. 27 at West Allis Central High School when he suffered sudden cardiac arrest, according to a press release from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa.
Athletic trainer Scott Barthlama performed CPR on the Waunakee player until paramedics arrived. They then performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator (AED) to keep Saxby’s heart pumping.
Saxby was transported to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a genetic heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, according to the press release. It is a disease that causes a portion of the heart muscle to be enlarged and is the leading cause of death in young athletes.
AEDs are placed in West Allis Central High School through Project ADAM, a Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin project. It has saved more than 100 lives nationwide, according to the release.
Saxby was greeted by members of the West Allis Fire Department, West Allis Mayor, Waunakee School officials and medical staff upon his release from the hospital.
In this edition, WAND’s Gordon Voit talks to Mt. Zion head athletic trainer Dustin Fink, who was among the athletic trainers that worked directly with the IHSA on establishing the new rules. Fink’s passion for athlete safety extends into many areas, especially through his concussion blog.
Stephanie McKnight, the health sciences teacher at Alliance High School, was the right person to be called to help when Renee Barnes, a French teacher at the school, went into cardiac arrest after school one day.
Barnes collapsed from cardiac arrest after school one day in the high school lobby. McKnight, whose classroom is close by, was called to the scene where her teaching went into practice.
“I assessed the scene and immediately began CPR while Abbey Blake got the AED (automated external defibrillator) from the lobby cabinet. Lindsey Reynolds who is also a certified athletic trainer prepared the AED for use. I continued CPR and used the AED until the Alliance Fire Department arrived. It was an incredible team effort. Administrators and staff at the scene worked so well together. Everyone knew their role and performed seamlessly,” McKnight said.
Barnes was then transported by medical ambulance to the hospital where she received treatment. The intervention by McKnight and others that day may have saved her life.
McKnight teaches the Sports Medicine career tech path at the high school, is a certified athletic trainer and is a CPR and American Heart Association First Aid instructor.
She said while she was administering CPR and the AED machine, all she could think of were the lessons she teaches students each day.
“The only thing going through my mind was my training. My training as an athletic trainer and my training as a CPR instructor guided me through the situation until more advanced help arrived. Abbey Blake was even certified in one of my classes last year,” she said.
Alliance High School Principal Shawn Jacksonl nominated McKnight for the Aviator Pride Award, a monthly award given by the school board of education that recognizes a staff member or teacher for their exceptional service to the district.
“Stephanie McKnight’s calm, purposeful, and direct actions in saving the life of a colleague were amazing to behold. In a very tense situation, she confidently took control and expertly used her knowledge and training to save Renee Barnes, who had collapsed in the high school lobby,” Jackson wrote in his nomination about McKnight.
She was awarded the Aviator Pride Award at the Dec. 20 school board meeting.
Alliance City School District has more AED machines than required by state law. The one McKnight used in the lobby of the high school is a ReviveR AED. The only thing that needs replaced after use are the pads, the actual machine is reusable.
McKnight said that through the incident more people will realize the need for First Aid and CPR training.
“People are afraid to help for any number of reasons but through proper education and practice this fear can be lessened. CPR training certification is good for two years,” McKnight said.
Her students are trained in Heartsaver Adult, Child & Infant CPR their junior year and BLS (Basic Life Support) their senior year. Her students also practice using the AED during both trainings.
For more information on gaining CPR or First Aid certification, call the Alliance Career Centre at 330-829-2267.
Susan Blackson woke up around 2 a.m. Dec. 3 and received a text message she was very glad to receive.
Reading freshman boys’ basketball coach Jerry Overbeck made it through successful surgery at Bethesda North Hospital just hours after having a heart attack in the Reading High School locker room.
Blackson, the Reading athletic trainer since 2012, and off-duty medical professionals Bryan Young, a St. Bernard paramedic, and Jennifer Raleigh, a UC trauma nurse, helped to resuscitate the 56-year-old Overbeck after the Indian Hill at Reading varsity boys’ basketball game the night of Dec. 2.
Reading freshman boys’ basketball coach Jerry Overbeck with his wife Terry.
“If the three of them weren’t there they said he would’ve been gone,” said Terry Overbeck, Jerry’s wife. “I really think they saved his life. It happened at the right place at the right time.”
Jerry Overbeck, a 1979 Reading graduate, is resting at home this week. A lifelong Reading resident, Overbeck played basketball at the school and has been a freshman boys’ basketball coach the past three years.
“He’s a Reading guy through and through,” Reading varsity boys basketball coach Bill Stidham said. “His children (Jeremy, Jason, Jake and Jessica) went to Reading. He goes to all the events and functions.”
So it’s no wonder why family and friends have donated to a GoFundMe account to help defray medical costs since it’s uncertain when Jerry will return to work as an auto mechanic.
The account has raised over $4,000 as of Wednesday night after it was set up Monday.
“The support of the Reading community is unbelievable,” said Terry Overbeck, a 1975 Reading graduate. “Their prayers have been great.”
The Reading community will take time to recognize the efforts of Blackson, Young and Raleigh Dec. 21 at the Board of Education meeting room at the middle school at 5:30 p.m. The Overbeck family is also expected to attend.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the three,” Reading Principal Dennis Ramsey said. “They were in the ultimate position. They stepped up and they worked very quickly.”
The Overbeck family can’t say enough about the quick response and communication from the three medical professionals, coaches, players and Athletic Director Jon Payne.
“It was a collective effort,” Stidham said. “We were all working together to save (Jerry’s) life.”
For Blackson, a Beacon Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine trainer and Edgewood resident, Dec. 2 was the first opportunity to be in such a life-and-death situation in her position.
The Strongsville, Ohio native has been an athletic trainer since 2003. She was previously at Mount St. Joseph from 2006 to 2012 prior to Reading.
Before every game or athletic event, she has a mental checklist of what she needs to be aware if a situation arises. Dec. 2 was one of those nights. She was ready.
Between 9:30 and 10 p.m., Blackson heard Jerry was in trouble. He had gone to the restroom near the locker room and coaches heard a thump on the floor. They found him unresponsive. His face looked purple.
The players were rushed out of locker room. Emergency 911 was called. Payne went to the weight room to retrieve the automated external defibrillator (AED) while Blackson and Young worked on Jerry. Raleigh went to help with CPR.
Jacob Courtney, a Reading basketball player, told Terry about the situation. She went to the locker room with her sons, Jeremy and Jake.
“I went down there with the boys and we held on to each other,” Terry said.
It took two shocks to get Jerry’s heart to a beating rhythm.
Blackson didn’t flinch under stress. She was very thankful to have the assistance of Young and Raleigh. Everyone stayed calm under tremendous pressure.
“I think the adrenaline just kicks in,” said Blackson, who has been at Reading since fall 2012. “You just go. You don’t stop and don’t think.”
The next morning, Blackson visited the hospital to see Jerry. The whole weekend had been a blur of sorts for Blackson.
“It was unbelievable to see in less than 24 hours he could talk to me and hold a conversation,” Blackson said. “The first thing he said was thank you.”
Some of the players have visited Jerry. But they understand he needs rest. Stidham says the team has a few ideas in mind to recognize Jerry when the time is right.
For now, Stidham is being truthful to his players about Jerry’s condition. Jerry had a stent installed and it will be an extensive rehabilitation process for his heart. The coach is in their thoughts at school.
Stidham is also thankful for the AED that was available that night at school. Those extra seconds proved valuable in the ultimate time of need.
“Without the AED I don’t think Mr. Overbeck would’ve made it out that night,” Stidham said.
It’s the moment many school employees prepare for, but never think will come: a student in cardiac arrest.
It happened Monday at Caledonia High School, but that student is alive and well thanks to two teachers, Brett Knoop and Phil Miedema.
Knoop is a teacher and athletic trainer, trained in emergency care for nearly 20 years. He never thought he would need that training for a student.
“I’ve been an athletic trainer now for nearly 20 years and I always thought it would be a grandparent or maybe a colleague, but I never imagined it would be a student we would have to do this for,” Knoop said.
Peter Lombardo
Especially not a healthy student with no cardiac history like 17-year-old Peter Lombardo.
Recognizing the signs of cardiac arrest, Knoop and Miedema started compressions almost immediately.
“I went and got the AED while he [Knoop] was doing CPR,” said Miedema. “We hooked up the AED, got it going, fired up and within 43 seconds of that time we were already shocked and had him back.
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital cardiologist Emy Kuriakose says Lombardo’s heart rhythm changed suddenly which caused blood to stop flowing to his vital organs.
Kuriakose & Peter
Kuriakose says the quick action from his teachers likely saved his life.
“The fact that the AED was right there and the teachers were there at that moment to put the device on was really fortuitous. If he had stayed in that rhythm any longer he would’ve had some serious damage to the organs in his body and to his brain.”
Lombardo underwent surgery at DeVos on Thursday and was released early Friday morning, just in time for Christmas break.
