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Michael Ward, a 17-year-old Pequot Lakes High School student suffered a heart attack at approximately 8:40 pm, Tuesday, June 2 in the high school gym during basketball practice.
He was then airlifted to St. Cloud, and listed in critical condition at an area hospital.
On Friday, he was upgraded to fair condition and he remains in the hospital.
Ward has been a starter on the Pequot Lakes basketball team for the past two years and was named co-captain for his senior season. The team had been practicing for summer ball when he collapsed Tuesday night.
Updates
It’s unusual for a 17-year-old boy to collapse from sudden cardiac arrest, and two in the same hospital at the same time is almost unheard of.
Michael Ward the Survivor
Ward has since been diagnosed with a congenital heart condition called Long Q-T syndrome, and was scheduled to have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator implanted in his chest Wednesday, June 10.
The families of Michael Ward and Kyle Bednar say the boys don’t remember going into cardiac arrest and never remember being airlifted to St. Cloud Hospital.
“All I remember that night was being dropped off (at school),” Ward said Monday morning in one of his first trips back to the Patriots’ gym. “The next thing I remember was being in the hospital and a guy ripping wires off my leg.”
“They say it’s rare and that many people don’t live through it,” Ward said of the incident. “I really want to thank the first responders and the staff at the hospital.”
Both Ward and Bednar mothers say they have a new mission—making sure every high school is equipped with a defibrillator and people who know how to use them.
