Tag: AED

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North Carolina Athletic Trainers Team Up to Save Referees Life

Article reposted from The Mountaineer
Author: Mikell Webb

Just 18 minutes into Wednesday night’s Tuscola at Pisgah boys soccer match at Memorial Stadium, head referee Alan Tenan collapsed on the field with an apparent heart attack.
Suddenly, bitter rivals  shifted their focus from the a match to coming together to aid Tenan.
Pisgah junior soccer player Justin Francis, who is also an Eagle Scout, rushed to Tenan’s aid and turned him from lying on his face to his back. Just seconds later, Pisgah athletic trainer Jennifer Frey, Tuscola athletic trainer Stephen Digh and three emergency medical personnel at the rivalry match rushed onto the field and took over the situation.
All focus was on the Tenan as both schools’  coaches and administrators cleared the area and  students ran to move the practice goals so the ambulance could drive onto the field.
Moments later, the Canton Fire Department also arrived on the scene.
Chest compressions (CPR) was administered with the AED to revive him.
“In the midst of a great rivalry being played out at Pisgah’s Memorial Stadium between two great high schools the soccer match was stopped as a result of an emergency situation in which the head referee, Mr. Alan Tenan, collapsed on the field,” said Tuscola Principal Travis Collins. “What I witnessed was the rapid response of the trainers from both Pisgah and Tuscola, as well as our two coaches and the players on the field.  Due to the swift and professional actions of our two high school’s trainers and personnel from the Haywood County EMS, Mr. Tenan received the appropriate medical attention and was safely transported to Mission Hospital where as of [Thursday morning] he was in stable condition and being moved into a room for follow up care.
“We are so very thankful for the cooperation and professionalism that took place [Wednesday night] in response to this life-threatening emergency and extend our thoughts and prayers to Mr. Tenan and his family as he recovers.”
Tenan was conscious prior to being transported to Mission Hospital.
Pisgah Head Coach Ralph Michael and Pisgah Assistant Athletic Director Casey Kruk postponed the match. At press time, the rescheduled date had not been determined.
“Obviously, the match was postponed,” said Kruk. “Mr. Tenan and our athletes at both schools are very fortunate to have such great athletic trainers. The EMT personnel on the scene and the trainers went to work immediately on Mr. Tenan. Because they had the right equipment and were properly trained, they saved another life.”
As the ambulance left Memorial Stadium, parents, fans, students and players held hands, made a circle at midfield and prayed for Tenan.
“We are so relieved and thankful this situation turned out the way did,” said Pisgah Principal Greg Bailey. “Both schools should be so thankful of their staff, their coaches, their kids and their community. How they responded [Wednesday night] is a positive reflection of the people who live here. It just makes you swell up with pride. We have fun with these rivalries, but in this situation, both schools stood tall because when the ambulance left the field with Mr. Tenan, everybody from both schools locked hands in the middle of the field and prayed for Mr. Tenan. I’m so thankful that he got to return to his family.”

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Athletic trainer revives boys soccer player on the field

Article reposted from NJ.com
Author: Brian Deakyne

The first 11 months of Matt Barlow’s tenure asTrenton Catholic’s Academy‘s athletic trainer had been relatively uneventful.

That all changed last Thursday.

In a quite literally life-or-death situation, Barlow sprung into action on the opening day of the boys soccer season as he rushed on to the field and resuscitated a student-athlete that had collapsed.

The player, a defender for Riverside whose name has not been released, collapsed 25 minutes into the first half against Trenton Catholic in Hamilton. That’s when Barlow, who was hired by TCA last September, rushed on to the field.

The player, who collapsed face-down 20 yards away from the play, was breathing when he reached him, Barlow said, but that quickly changed as the player became unresponsive.

It was then that Barlow and Trenton Catholic assistant coach Scott Alvarez — a retired fireman — called for an ambulance and began performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) with the aid of an automated external defibrillator (AED).

“My assistant coach is a retired firefighter, he jumped in there and was ready to give compressions while I got in place to give breaths,” Barlow told NJ Advance Media on Monday. “After one round, he came to it with a loud gasp — kind of like when you get scared. We got vitals back and we just monitored until the EMS came and they took over from there.”

Barlow, who acknowledged that the heat, which was above 90 degrees during the game, could have certainly played a factor. Other, pre-existing and unknown medical conditions are always in play in these types of situations, he added.

“A lot of times when you read these stories in athletics, you can never rule out — until a kid gets a full workup done, which I’m sure he probably will get done — a cardiac condition because those are always lying and waiting and can come up and bite you at any time,” Barlow said. “I’m leaning more on the side of dehydration and the heat really getting to him and not taking in all the fluids you need for your first varsity game of the season.

“There were a million things running through my mind about what that young man could have and I’m just terribly relieved that when we got him up, he was breathing and had a pulse. That made things one thousand times better for me.”

Barlow, just over two years removed from college, said he never anticipated having to handle such an extreme situation so early in his career, but noted that his education and training had him prepared for anything.

“I consider myself very thankful,” he said. “All athletic trainers, we go through this training and I’ve heard stories from colleagues and clinical instructors going through this, but they’ve been in the game for 20 or 25 years, and for me, just a few years out of college, to finally get thrown into the fire like that, I never expected it to happen this early. I was very thankful that I hadn’t had to experience something like that, but since it happened, your training takes over and you get to work.”

Without the work of Barlow and the other assistant coaches, the final outcome may not have been as positive for the player.

“I really have to give it up to my assistant coaches,” Barlow said. “With one being a retired firefighter, he’s been through this many more times than I have and I had full confidence that they would have responded appropriately. But, for me to be there and just delegate responsibilities. I’m just happy that the assistant coaches were there and could help out in any way possible.”

“We are blessed here with our trainer and coaches,” Trenton Catholic president Sr. Dorothy Payne said. “All coaches have received training and we make sure that all health regulations are followed.”

Riverside, whose athletic department has so far declined to comment, opted to continue the game after the resuscitation and ultimately tied Trenton Catholic, 3-3.

Brian Deakyne may be reached at bdeakyne@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianDeakyne. Like NJ.com High School Sports on Facebook.

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Athletic Trainer Elizabeth Thomason uses AED to help save soccer player’s life

Article reposted from
Author:

It started out as just another typical summer day — morning practice for the Catholic High boys soccer team so the players could enjoy the rest of the day and avoid the oppressive South Louisiana summer heat.

Steven Champ had just returned from work and dropped off his son, also Steven, at practice and was headed home.

At practice, the younger Champ and the rest of the soccer team had done some warmups and were in the middle of a sprint drill when something went wrong.

“The players had just finished warming up and were doing some sprints,” CHS assistant soccer coach Michael Pope said. “They were on the third sprint. I was watching the other players and Coach Adam (CHS head boys soccer coach Adam Glover) grabbed my attention and that’s when I turned around and saw Steven on the ground.

“I knew then something serious had happened.”

Champ had collapsed and was convulsing and not breathing. Pope ran to him and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Glover called head football coach and athletic director Brent Indest, who called head athletic trainer Elizabeth “Biz” Thomason.

“It was a typical start of the week. Normal workouts had begun,” Thomason said. “We were just getting back into the swing of things and I was hanging out in the training room waiting to see if anyone needed me.

“Then I get a call from Coach Indest that I was needed urgently out in the front of school.”

Instincts kicking in, Thomason grabbed what she needed out of the training room, including Catholic High’s brand new Automated External Defibrilator (AED) and ran to where she was needed.

It would prove to be a fortuitous grab.

“I wasn’t gone five minutes when Coach Glover called me and told me to come back to the field,” said the elder Champ. “Coach Glover told me that Steven had collapsed and it looked like he was seizing and (asked) had this ever happened before. I told him no.”

At first, the elder Champ thought his son had a hamstring issue, because he’d had previous issues with hamstrings. When he got the news that his son had collapsed, his mindset immediately changed.

Back on the practice field, Pope had gone through two rounds of CPR when Thomason showed up with the AED.

By that time, Champ got back to the field and saw the CHS staff working on his son.

“I ran to the field and when I got there he had no pulse and wasn’t breathing,” Champ said. “I’m sitting there shouting at him in his ear. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Biz coming up with something over her shoulder. I didn’t know what it was at the time but I was in a panic.”

Thomason said it took her less than five minutes to get to where Champ was on the practice field with the AED, which was donated to Catholic High by Nativity of Our Lady Church four weeks ago and was moved into the trainer’s room at the field house two weeks later.

“We have one at the school and we moved this one into the trainer’s room so if we needed it, it would be closer to where the kids practice,” said Thomason, who quickly assessed the situation, removed Champ’s shirt and hooked up the AED.

“We set up the AED and I never thought I’d hear the words, ‘shock advised.’ So the shock was delivered and you could see the life go back into him.”

After the shock delivered by the AED, Pope continued CPR on the younger Champ and an ambulance showed up shortly after, with paramedics taking over resuscitation efforts.

Champ first went to Iberia Medical Center for a couple of hours, according to his father, then to Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Lafayette for a couple of days and finally Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, where they spent five days.

“They did a procedure on him and he was released from the hospital June 14,” said Champ.

According to his father, doctors still aren’t sure exactly what happened to the younger Champ on that June Moning. All that anyone knows for sure is that according to the AED, Champ had no cardio activity going on and was shocked to get his heart started.

The Catholic High sophomore athlete has been to New Orleans for doctor’s visits in the past month and has been undergoing genetic testing. The examining doctors believe that he has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy but that hasn’t been officially diagnosed.

He is expected to be sidelined for the next three to six months before he can start playing soccer again but he has told his father that he will play again.

“Since the incident, my son has been in real good spirits,” said the elder Champ. “It was actually his idea to put this message out because if he can save one life, it’s all worth it.”

Champ added that it is very important that parents convince the schools that having one or more AED’s on campus and having people that know how to use them in case another student, or athlete or parent has some type of similar medical emergency.

Thomason added that several times each year, Catholic High holds drills for just such an emergency. 

The school has two AED’s already and plan to add two more and have them placed around campus so that one isn’t too far away if and when they are needed.

“Everything worked like it should have,” said Thomason. “All the protocols we have in place worked from the coaches and trainers knowing what to do.

“It can’t be emphasized enough just how important it is to have an AED available. Without it, this could have ended differently.”

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More on the Life Saving Efforts of Ohio Athletic Trainer

A Centerville senior was minutes away from losing his life during his final regular season lacrosse game.

On Saturday, Moeller varsity lacrosse team hosted Centerville at home.

Centerville team captain Grant Mays, 17, was hit in his chest with the ball during a routine on-goal shot at the start of the third quarter.

Watch this story

Seconds later, after he scooped up the ball and passed to a teammate, he collapsed near the 40-yard line.

Moeller head athletic trainer Craig Lindsey said he didn’t see the hit, but as soon as Mays fell, he ran onto the field.

“His legs get really wobbly … then he collapses all in one motion,” Lindsey said. “As soon as I lifted his jersey up and saw the reddened area, I knew we were dealing with an event called commodial cortis event. It’s where the heart is in between beats and there is a direct blow to the chest wall.”

The cardiac emergency is so rare, it’s only been documented 180 times in the last 20 years. But Lindsey said based on his education and training, he immediately knew what was happening to Mays’ heart.

“It throws the heart into this quivering nonfunctional state,” Lindsey said. “It’s one of those things where you hope it doesn’t happen on your clock but if it does, you prepare for it.”

Lindsey knew Mays needed his heart to be shocked back into a normal rhythm and there was a small window of time to do so.

Luckily, Lindsey always carries, an Automated External Defibrillator, AED, to every game and practice he attends with the team. It was on the sidelines for Saturday’s game.

“Thank God we had the accessibility of it and we were able to put it to use and we had a positive outcome which is the blessing at the end of the day,” Lindsey said.

Centerville Lacrosse head coach Troy Stehlin said Lindsey’s quick thinking and immediate action saved Mays’ life.

“It was certainly a scary moment because it was not a routine exhaustion,” Stehlin said. “That AED was the difference between a young man going on to succeed at Miami University and whatever else he has in store and him not moving on with that part of his life.”

Stehlin said Mays was taken to the hospital Saturday but has been released and doing great at home. He is scheduled to return to school Wednesday for his last day as a senior and will graduate this weekend.

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Texas Athletic Trainer and Patient Reflect on Life Saving Day

The last thing that Temple High School sophomore De’Aveun Banks remembers about the day he collapsed was attending track practice on March 30 at Wildcat Stadium.

No warning. No preexisting condition. No way this would be the end for the 16-year-old student-athlete who lay motionless on the ground with a faint pulse.

De’Aveun’s mother, Shanee Banks, and Windee Skrabanek, an athletic trainer for the Temple Independent School District who administered CPR to De’Aveun in those crucial moments before the ambulance arrived, talked about the near-tragedy publicly for the first time Monday.

Skrabanek said it was like an ordinary day at work, until a couple of her athletic training students ran into the training room yelling for her.

“You feel that sense of urgency and you start running and kids are screaming your name,” she said. “And when I got there — he was on the ground.”

An overwhelmed Skrabanek broke down into tears recalling that specific moment. The mood in the room was heavy as De’Aveun rolled over to her in his chair placing his arm around her shoulders — comforting the athletic trainer who saved his life.

“I started just rubbing on his chest saying, ‘De’, De’, De’ — can you hear me? Hey! Talk to me! Talk to me!’” Skrabanek said.

When he didn’t respond all 15 years of Skrabanek’s experience as an athletic trainer took over.

“That is when you go into the emergency action plan,” Skrabanek said.

What Skrabanek describes may have seemed like organized chaos, with coaches calling 911, her shouting protocol commands and students standing back in disbelief.

 Skrabanek said they immediately brought out the automated external defibrillator, a portable device that can diagnose life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and can deliver electrical therapy as needed.

As they waited for the ambulance, during that 5-minute window, Skrabanek worked on De’Aveun.

“At this time we are checking for a pulse,” she said. “It was at that time we stuck the pads on and the AED (defibrillator) takes over from there — so then that becomes your coach.”

The defibrillator, which uses verbal and visual commands while keeping track of time and each action taken, initially surveys the condition of the heart.

“Those 10 seconds of analyzing seemed like 15 minutes,” she said. “But then it did a shock right away and then says, ‘Check airway. Check breathing. Check circulation. Start CPR’— and then I started CPR right away.”

She went back and forth with CPR as the defibrillator sent shocks to De’Aveun’s chest.

 “The fact that he was already getting five minutes of care prior to them getting there … it was a miracle that he was where he was and we had personnel there with the right equipment,” she said.

De’Aveun was transported to McLane Children’s Scott & White Hospital. After being in critical but stable condition, he was airlifted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston where he received specialized pediatric heart care in the intensive care unit for 2½ weeks.

“No history, no health issues. He has always been — just healthy,” Shanee said.

Skrabanek said doctors, who are still running tests, are leaning towards a condition called myocarditis. It is the inflammation of the heart that often has no symptoms and can occur as a result of an infection.

De’Aveun returned to school April 18, less than three weeks after his collapse. He now wears a LifeVest under his shirt. It is a wearable defibrillator that monitors his heart and provides feedback to doctors in Houston.

“They are reading it 24 hours, but mostly while he sleeps,” Shanee Banks said.

He meets regularly with his doctors in Temple to monitor his progress.

De’Aveun hopes to return to a winning Wildcat football team as a linebacker — as of right now he is not allowed do any physical activity.

“He works with his position’s group in the mental aspect,” Skrabanek said. “He motivates and helps coach them up.”

His mother said she is supportive of his return to sports.

“That is his passion. It is what he loves and has been all he has known since he was 6,” Shanee said.

As for De’Aveun, the second oldest of three siblings, he said he is not worried about the future.

“I am feeling great,” De’Aveun said.

“He is back to the same old, bubbly, smiling kid that is full of energy,” Shanee said. “It is a blessing! I am overjoyed, but overly protective now.”

De’Aveun said he is grateful for Skrabanek and her efforts.

“I am glad she was there, at the right time — to bring me back,” De’Aveun said.

“This is the best reward right here,” the trainer said, tapping De’Aveun on the knee. “Seeing him throughout was amazing. It wasn’t just me, it was everyone who worked together to follow the actions that needed to take place.”

Shanee said she not only appreciates his classmates and school who were excited for his return, but the entire community rallying behind her son.

“The community, people near and far,” Shanee said. “…We are blessed. He is blessed. We are just grateful that he is here with us.”

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Teen Saved by AED and Prepared Athletic Trainer


A Layton teen is alive and well thanks to a well-trained and quick-thinking athletic trainer at Northridge High School. Leigh Otis is a full time teacher and part-time athletic trainer who can now ad hero to her title.

The Davis County woman administered CPR and an used an automated external defibrillator, or AED, to get a 17-year-old boy breathing and alert by the time paramedics arrived.

The teen was rushed originally to Davis Hospital and then by ground ambulance to Primary Children’s Hospital late Wednesday.

While the teen’s family is not releasing his name or condition, his school, who’s been in contact with the family said he’s doing well — especially considering the fact the ending of this story could have been far different.

The story started Wednesday afternoon when the Northridge football team stayed after school for pre-season strength training. Around 3:30 p.m. the 17-year-old walked out of the gym for a quick break with friends. In the hallway, a group stopped to get a drink.

“His friend was getting a drink of water and he collapsed on the floor.”

Otis said another athlete ran down a staircase just feet from the drinking fountain to her office where she was working. She sprinted up the stairs. He “wasn’t breathing, no pulse.”

Otis has taught CPR for years, but until that moment, had never had a need to use the skill. She went into autopilot.

“Emotionally I don’t think I was feeling anything, I was just taking care of him. It was my biggest concern. I didn’t think about what to do next I just started (chest) compressions.”

A student called 9-1-1 while Otis’ intern, Amanda Jennings, a Weber State student, ran for the AED at the bottom of the stairs.

Otis says she “did compressions and then ventilations while she attached it (AED) to him; once the AED was attached and ready to analyze the heart rhythm we stopped giving compressions.”

Once open, the AED gives step-by-step instructions on what to do. The foil was removed from the electronic paddles and placed on the teen’s chest. Nothing immediately happened after the shock, so the women continued with CPR.

A minute later, “we noticed he took a breath, he took another breath on his own and we checked for a pulse.” At that point the teen had a heartbeat but he was still unconscious.

Five minutes into the ordeal, the teen was alert and talking and could remember his name and where he was.

“Anyone can use it, even if you have never used it. If you have that same situation, you could pull it off the shelf and save a life.”

Otis has always been a proponent of using and keeping an AED nearby, but now she wants others to know they too can save a life.

Otis credits the lifesaving efforts to the AED, one of the six scattered through Northridge High. She carries her own portable one wherever she goes — including on the sidelines of games.

“I would hope anyone with the same training would do the same thing, everyone calls me a hero but I don’t feel that way.” Otis was getting emotional as she talked about her hero status saying “I just did what I was trying to do.”

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Bethlehem schools honor coach, athletic trainer who saved reporter’s life

March 11 should have been like any other day in Marty Myers’ more than 20-year career as a sports writer.

He walked into Freedom High School to cover a basketball game between Dunmore High and Philadelphia’s Imhotep Charter School for the Scranton Times-Tribune. But before he even stepped into the gym, he collapsed in the school’s lobby.

Myers, 59, doesn’t remember any of it, he said Monday night. But he went into cardiac arrest, and fell so hard that he would later need 17 staples to the head.

“I was walking into the gym, I looked in the gym and saw the Dunmore girls stretching, and the next thing I know, I was in the back of an ambulance,” Myers said.

Luckily for Myers, he had a team around him that was trained in how to respond quickly in a situation like that. Freedom basketball coach Joe Stellato immediately started CPR, and Freedom athletic trainer Dana Bennett soon reached Myers to begin work with an automated external defibrillator.

The small, portable machines can deliver a potentially life-saving shock to those who go into sudden cardiac arrest, in addition to using an automated voice that guides the user on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Maureen Burke, Dunmore’s athletic trainer, also worked on Myers. Bennett and Stellato were honored by the school district at Monday’s school board meeting.

The whole thing happened so quickly, both Bennett and Stellato said.

“There was no time to think at all,” said Bennett, 23.

Bennett, who had never met Myers, went to St. Luke’s University Hospital in Fountain Hill later that night to make sure he was OK. Myers thanked her and Stellato, but even that seemed not enough, he said.

“I owe them everything,” Myers said. “I don’t know what to say, other than ‘thank you,’ and that doesn’t seem enough. It never will be.”

Bennett, Stellato and Myers said if Myers was going to go into cardiac arrest anywhere, he was lucky that he was in a place that had people who know CPR and had defibrillators on hand.

“I don’t know how lucky one guy can be,” Myers said.

Stellato, who gets training every year in CPR and the automated external defibrillator, said he doesn’t know what was going on in his head that night. It was the first time he’s ever had to put his training to use.

“I was just focused on what to do next,” he said.

Rachel Moyer, whose 15-year-old son, Gregory Moyer, died 15 years ago after collapsing at a basketball game, was also at Monday’s meeting to present the district with eight automated external defibrillators.

Since Gregory’s death, Moyer has advocated for the widespread availability of defibrillators.

Only 23 states require defibrillators in at least some of their schools, according to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that advocates for more access to AEDs. Pennsylvania is not one of them.

“I couldn’t bring [Gregory] back, but I can make sure that all our school districts have AEDs on site, people know where they are, and people know how to use them,” she said.

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School Athletes Often Lack Adequate Protection

With all the attention on national rules to prevent and properly treat injuries to professional and college athletes, it may surprise you to learn that there are no nationwide guidelines to protect high school athletes from crippling or fatal injuries.

Instead, it is up to individual states and the schools within them to adopt policies and practices that help to assure the safety of children who play organized school or league sports. But most states and schools have yet to enact needed safety measures, according to data from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.

“Each state has its own high school athletic association, and each policy has to be individually approved,” said Douglas Casa, an athletic trainer and chief executive of the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute, named for the former National Football League player who died from complications related to heatstroke in 2001.

“It’s a burdensome, grueling process,” Dr. Casa said, that he and others hope will yield to the efforts of a new program, the Collaborative Solutions for Safety in Sport created by the athletic trainers’ association and theAmerican Medical Society for Sports Medicine.

The program held its second meeting last month, attended by two high school representatives from each state, to provide them with road maps to establish safety rules and policies or laws for high school athletics.

Last year alone, about 50 high school athletes died, according to the association, and thousands suffered long-term complications from sports-related injuries, most of which could have been avoided had well-established safety practices been in place and observed.

The leading causes of sports-related deaths among high school students are sudden cardiac arrest, head and neck injuries, and exertion-induced heatstroke or sickling, which occurs in athletes who carry the sickle cell trait. Fatalities occur primarily because most schools lack four critical ingredients to assure sports safety: emergency action plans, policies for proper conditioning and safe exercise in high heat and humidity, the presence of trained health professionals at all practices and games, and immediate availability of automated external defibrillators, or A.E.D.s, to reset a stilled or erratically beating heart.

In July 2004, Laura Friend of Fort Worth lost her 12-year-old daughter Sarah during a junior lifeguarding class because nobody recognized the child was in cardiac arrest and no one initiated CPR or used the A.E.D. on the premises. Not until after Sarah died was it known that she had been born with an enlarged heart.

Ms. Friend, who now coordinates a Texas cardiac emergency project, created a nonprofit foundation in her daughter’s memory that has donated 59 A.E.D.s and provided CPR and A.E.D. training for hundreds of youth and adults in Texas.

However, despite a 2007 law requiring an A.E.D. in every school in Texas, “many are locked up in an office and not accessible, or only the school nurse knows how to use it,” Ms. Friend said.

Knowing that sudden cardiac arrest is by far the leading cause of death among student-athletes, Dr. Casa owns an A.E.D. and takes it to every practice and game of soccer, lacrosse and swimming involving his three school-age children.

The Mallon family of Del Mar, Calif., knows all too well the importance of having a trained professional on hand during practices and games. When he was 17, Tommy Mallon landed hard after colliding with another lacrosse player, and a quick-thinking teammate refused to help him up. Instead, an athletic trainer, a certified health care professional, was summoned who, noticing subtle neurological signs that suggested a catastrophic, potentially fatal injury, called immediately for an ambulance.

Tommy, 23, now a global risk analyst in Austin, Tex., had sustained a fractured vertebra in his neck and torn artery to the brain. Had he been moved incorrectly, he could have died or been paralyzed.

In the years since, Tommy’s mother, Beth Mallon, has been a relentless advocate for teaching athletes how to recognize basic signs and symptoms of trouble on the field or court. Some 5,000 students have already been through the program she developed,Athletes Saving Athletes, taught by athletic trainers.

“In just two hours, the kids learn all they need to know: This could be serious, when and how to get help,” Ms. Mallon said. “We’ve had three success stories so far: one involving a heatstroke, one with cardiac arrest and a third with a neck injury and concussion.”

“High schools spend tons of money on referees, but almost nothing on safety,” she said. “I’d like to see every high school in the country adopt a sports safety curriculum. You never think a catastrophic injury will happen to your kid, but if it does, you’d be so grateful that someone is there who knows what to do.”

Dr. Jonathan Drezner, director of the Center for Sports Cardiologyat the University of Washington, outlined the key practices the collaborative project is trying to get every high school that sponsors athletic activities to adopt:

■ An athletic trainer at every practice and game;

■ An emergency action plan to respond appropriately to an athlete in distress;

■ A publicly accessible A.E.D. and school-based program in its use;

■ Climatization policies to prevent heat injury and heatstroke.

Although having a medically trained person readily available can be too costly for many schools, an A.E.D. costs only about $1,000 and can be used to save anyone — coaches, refs and spectators as well as athletes.

“I can’t believe we don’t have universal access to A.E.D.s in schools; they should be like fire extinguishers,” Dr. Drezner said. “There are 7.5 million high school athletes in this country. During the academic school year 2014-2015, there were 55 cases of cardiac arrest among them, and 57 percent died.”

Parents whose children want to play school sports often focus more on uniforms than on measures to protect them from serious or fatal injuries. Experts say that a pre-participation medical exam is critical and should include an EKG if there is any family history of heart trouble.

Coaches should know CPR, the location and use of an A.E.D., the signs of a possible concussion, and when to keep a player on the sidelines. Coaches should also monitor climate conditions and know when to postpone or suspend a practice or competitive event to avoid heat injuries. During hot weather and high humidity, a cooling tub should always be available. If school money is tight, parents might hold a fund-raiser to assure that an athletic trainer or sports medicine doctor attends every practice and game.

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Pair of Athletic Trainers Save Sportswriters Life

Today is a day for the lucky. Might as well write about the luckiest guy I know.

Marty Myers knows this could have been his obituary, that perhaps under an only slightly different set of circumstances, it would have been. It’s not. Thank God, it’s not. But, it comes that close, sometimes. One minute, you’re alive. The next, you’re dead.

Then, the next, you’re alive again.

This is the story of our longtime colleague in the sports department at The Times-Tribune, and judging by the outpouring of support he has received from many of you over the last week, Marty needs no introduction.

But for those of you who don’t know, the 59-year-old sports writer traveled to Freedom High School in Bethlehem last Friday to cover an important girls basketball game. Dunmore against Imhotep Charter.

He drove to the game. Got out of his car. Walked through the parking lot. Said hello to the workers sitting at the desk collecting tickets. Stared in through the gym’s doors to see Dunmore’s players getting ready to warm up.

Next thing he knew, he lay on a bed at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, doctors bustling around him.

He had no idea how he ended up there.

Still doesn’t remember a moment of that gap in time.

The scary truth is he collapsed before he ever took a step into the gym that night.

Fell so violently, he struck his head on the floor in the Freedom lobby.

Needed 17 staples to close the gash that caused. But in the long run, it went down as the least of his issues.

The cause was sudden cardiac arrest. Marty stopped breathing. And, he had no pulse.

Consider, for a second, what you would do if you saw this happen, if the difference between a shot at life and certain death rested on your ability to act.

Consider, also, the type of people you’d want around you if something like this ever happened to you.

The people Marty had around him were Maureen Burke and Dana Bennett.

Talk about luck. Because in that moment of sheer terror, Bennett — the athletic trainer at Freedom — started performing CPR.

And Burke — Dunmore’s athletic trainer — recovered Marty’s heart beat with the use of an Automated External Defibrillator that Dunmore trainers bring to every event.

On Tuesday, doctors gave Marty an implanted cardioverter defibrillator, which will help control life-threatening arrhythmias — like the one he had — through electrical pulses.

And Wednesday, he headed back home.

“I can’t ever repay them. I just can’t,” Marty said of Burke and Bennett, his voice cracking. “I’m having some difficulty dealing with that emotionally.”

By the very definition of the sacred word, Burke and Bennett are heroes. They possessed the know-how to save a man’s life. And, they saved it.

That doesn’t make it any less scary to think what might have been.

What if he collapsed a half hour earlier, with nobody around?

Or a half hour later, in a lobby too congested for help to get through quickly and easily?

Most of all, what if this happened in one of the many other schools in the state, or if Marty had been covering a game played by one of many other teams, who didn’t go above and beyond Pennsylvania law to have an AED at the ready?

Fortunately, the PIAA requires any site that hosts a district or state playoff event in any sport to have access to an AED.

What happened to Marty can happen to anybody.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 420,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are assessed by EMS teams every year in the United States.

About 90 percent of victims, it says, die before they can receive necessary help.

Quick action through the use of an AED and CPR, the association says, is the only way to help. The AHA estimates survival rates can drop by 10 percent per minute.

Burke has been a trainer at Dunmore for nearly a decade, and the first person she used the AED on was Marty Myers.

Even before her hiring though, that school district recognized the need to have defibrillators on site to help students who may need it.

But, she knew first-hand how important they were.

A few years before she graduated from Notre Dame High School in East Stroudsburg, on Dec. 2, 2000, a popular basketball player at the school named Greg Moyer collapsed at halftime of a game against East Stroudsburg North.

There were no AEDs on site, and the nearest hospital stood 20 minutes away.

Moyer was 15, a star athlete and a popular kid.

And that night, he died. His parents set out on a years-long mission to put AEDs in every school, nationwide.

It’s a mission that is still waged today.

According to the nonprofit Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, only 23 states require them on site at schools. Pennsylvania is not one of them.

“The biggest difference to me in the last 15 years was that I didn’t know then what an AED was,” Burke said. “Back then, we had a community and a school who found out why they needed them. Now, we have two schools and a community who can point to them and know why they are there.”

Marty is proof of how much good a change in the law could do.

In our most dire moments, we’d all want what he got.

A fighting chance.

A device that could give it to us.

And, of course, guardian angels.

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A Colonia basketball player’s life was saved Tuesday at Edison High School, thanks to the heroic efforts of coaches and staffers from both schools. But if it wasn’t for a needed government response to earlier tragedies, life-saving tools might not have been available to those on the scene.

During the second quarter of a freshman boys game Tuesday afternoon, a Colonia player collapsed near midcourt. Colonia coach Joe LaSala immediately recognized the urgency involved and felt the player needed a defibrillator. Edison physical education teacher Mark Blevins, who had been operating the scoreboard clock, and Colonia assistant coach Tyler Jackow ran for the AED device outside the gym. Edison athletic trainer Tim Root applied the defibrillator shocks that began to revive the player. Edison freshman coach Chris Banos also assisted until emergency responders arrived at the scene within a few minutes.

Everyone involved deserves high praise for their professionalism and skill. Woodbridge Schools Superintendent Robert Zega called it a “miracle.” But there are also others who warrant their own recognition for helping make those life-saving efforts possible.

For instance, we should thank Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, D-South Plainfield, who several years ago aggressively spearheaded legislation to require AEDs (automatic external defibrillators) in all schools, and that students be provided with information about sudden cardiac deaths.

There was an unfortunate irony to Tuesday’s incident occurring at Edison High. Six years ago, Kittim Sherrod, an Edison football player, died after collapsing during a training run at the school. He was found to have suffered from an undiagnosed heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, His death, and the similar death of another Middlesex County athlete, Brandon James of South Brunswick, prompted Diegnan’s AED legislation. Also championing that cause was Sherrod’s grandmother, Razeenah Walker, who worked with Diegnan in crafting the legislation and testified in support before the Assembly Education Committee.

Another piece of legislation that has become law also requires the creation of emergency action plans to respond to sudden cardiac events. At least five school employees, team coaches or athletic trainers must be properly certified in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and the use of a defibrillator. Named Janet’s Law, the measure was created in memory of Janet Zilinski, an 11-year-old from Warren who died of sudden cardiac arrest after a cheerleading practice in 2006.

These are examples of government action at its finest, the way it’s supposed to work. A problem is exposed, a dedicated representative develops a response to fix it, or at least reduce the chances of a repeat occurrence, and our leaders turn it into law. Every school in the state now benefits.

But none of it would have meant anything if Root and Blevins, and the coaches of both teams Tuesday, hadn’t taken their responsibilities seriously, assuring they knew what to do and how to do it as quickly as possible when needed.

Edison High School parents and students should be comforted by the knowledge that their school’s personnel care. And a Colonia family no doubt feels special gratitude for those who helped save a loved one’s life.

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