Article reposted from NH1
Author: NH1
An Epping High School athletic trainer saved a young man’s life with the help of a bystander at a basketball game Monday.
Access Sports Medicine‘s Director of Athletic Training Nicole Spaulding said that a Nute High School junior varsity basketball player went into cardiac arrest at the beginning of the second half of the game at about 6 p.m.
Robin Hunt, the Epping High School and Middle School athletic trainer employed through Access Sports Medicine, performed CPR and used an AED until emergency services arrived.
Derek Perry, an EMT with Boston-base Cataldo Ambulance, said he went to offer assistance after the player collapsed. He said he checked the player’s pulse in his wrist and could feel a pulse, so he thought the player could be having a seizure.
Perry said Hunt retrieved the AED as he monitored the player’s pulse, but as they were about to place the AED pads on the player, Perry said he lost the player’s pulse in both his wrist and neck. Perry said the player’s pulse in his groin was also diminishing, and that the AED told them to administer a shock.
Perry said he then began performing chest compressions and a second shock was administered, at which point the player began thrashing and working to breathe. Perry said the player’s pulse returned in his wrist and neck and he was breathing on his own until EMS arrived.
The player was later airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital, where he is now in stable condition.
Perry said contacts at the hospital told him that the young man was playing Playstation and doing well Tuesday morning. Perry said, as a parent, he is very happy that the young man is okay and that they were able to prevent a negative outcome.