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Melendez, who was only several doors away at the time, was the first to make it to the room.

“I could see he was in distress. He was breathing but his breathing was irratic. His color was off,” he said.

As others dialed 9-1-1, Melendez leaned over Brandon.

“Because I am a track coach I knew something was wrong. I started to check his pulse,” he said. “I said, ‘I think we should get the box.’ I called ‘Code Blue.’ At that moment, the training really kicked in.”

Within seconds, school staff were racing into the room with defibrillators. Following directions dictated by the machine, Melendez shocked Brandon twice.

“He let out a breath of air I will never forget in my life,” said Melendez. “It was incredible.”

Brandon’s mother – who had been waiting in the parking lot to pick him up – was hustled inside by another student. She first saw her son, on a stretcher, being wheeled down the hall by fire fighters and emergency medical responders. “I felt like it was a dream,” said Rebecca Hernandez, whose son, prior to that day, had never shown any sign of a heart problem. She rode with him in the ambulance to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, where he was in an induced coma for 48 tense hours. After that, he woke up.

Doctors told her that her son had not lost any brain function, thanks entirely to the quick response at Tottenville. “I see it as my son’s second birthday,” she said. “Every day I count my blessings, because everybody here worked together; everything worked right. The AED machine saved his life. Mr. Melendez saved his life. He’s our hero.”

After dozens of tests, aided by the microchip in the AED which recorded the activity of his heart that day, doctors still could not determine what caused Brandon’s attack. He underwent surgery to have an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator put into place, in the event his heart ever gives way again.

He was able to return to school May 1.

“I don’t remember anything about that day. I woke up in the hospital; I figured something bad had happened,” said Brandon, an inclusion student at Tottenville with P25R. “I was happy to be alive.”

Police received a call at 11:32 a.m. on April 26th that a car had crashed on SW Boeckman Rd. and SW Laurel Glen St. The caller reported that the driver was unresponsive and may have had a heart attack.

While police rushed to get to the scene, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Eagle grabbed an automated external defibrillator from the Wilsonville Police Department office. Once at the site of the crash, police determined that Richard Adolphson, 80, of West Linn did not have a pulse.

During resuscitation efforts, Eagle used the defibrillator and successfully revived him. A second deputy, John Wildhaber, also did chest compressions on Adolphson.

“This is a great example of the importance of having first responders who are willing to use CPR and an AED,” said Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue spokesman Brian Barker. “Every minute that you delay CPR and defibrillation, the patient’s chance for survival decreases 10 percent.”

Wilsonville Police officers also helped treat Alophson.

After the crash, he was taken to Meridian Park Hospital.

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The 7-year-old’s heart stopped during physical education on April 11 at Western Heights Elementary in Lake Charles.

“He was running around outside, playing with his friends for just about two minutes before he headed to the slide,” said Ken Flue, the school’s adapted physical education teacher for Western Heights. “He stepped on to the first step on the plastic playground and immediately collapsed.”

Flue moved the boy into the shade. Bowen had a faint pulse and was barely breathing. Then he stopped. Flue began rescue breathing and CPR while special-education aide April Jones ran to tell the front office to call 911.

Secretary Rhonda Cortez called on her cellphone while running to the playground, so she could relay instructions. Flue kept Bowen breathing for 10 minutes, until an ambulance arrived.

The school had also called Bowen’s parents, Steve and Eva Johnson, who arrived shortly before the ambulance.

“I was in shock. To see our son lying on the ground unconscious, he wasn’t breathing,” said Eva Johnson. “It was hard. It’s not something you see with children.”

Emergency medical technicians used a defibrillator to restart Bowen’s heart. Without Flue, he might have died before they arrived, they said.

“Everything worked just right. Everything was real surreal. When they put the paddles on him, I couldn’t watch that part,” Flue said. “He’s a very special kid, and it was definitely a God thing.”

Bowen was taken to Christus St. Patrick Hospital, then flown to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, where doctors implanted a defibrillator in his chest. It was the 21st operation for Bowen, who was diagnosed two years ago with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a condition that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick, making it difficult for the organ to pump blood — and was badly burned in a house fire in October 2008.

After the fire, doctors gave him a 2 percent chance of survival. It was three months before he had recovered enough at a local hospital to be moved to a burn center in Cincinnati.

“He had to spend 3 1/2 months completely immobile. Then he went through all of the grafts and had to relearn how to walk, how to feed himself, to do anything on his own,” Johnson said. “He never stopped. Even when I knew it hurt him, he didn’t stop.”

Johnson attributes Bowen’s amazing recovery to his resilient spirit and fun personality. Bowen was able to return home in 2008, but must return to the burn center about twice a year for checkups and new skin grafts.

He has so much scar tissue in his left shoulder that doctors had to put the defibrillator farther away from his heart, in his right shoulder.

“He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours while they tried to find a place and then tested to make sure it worked,” Johnson said.

For the first responders at Western Heights, having Bowen back at school is “nothing short of a miracle.”

“I’m so glad to see him. I’m glad he’s back,” Jones said. “He’s running around like nothing ever happened.”

“Bowen is probably one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met,” Flue said. “No matter what happens he just bounces right back. He’s just amazing.”

Bowen’s entire class welcomed him back, but it was his two best friends and “special helper” classmates who missed him and worried about him the most.

“I really missed him. I was worried because he was in surgery,” said Isabella Young, who helps Bowen write and hold his school supplies. “When he came back he said he had stitches in his arm so I’m even more worried about that.”

“It’s good he is back,” said Brylie Fontenot. “Today I helped him get his tray at lunch.”

Energetic as always, Bowen spent his first day back at school running around with his friends, playing his favorite “SuccessMaker” computer game, and watching an episode of “The Magic School Bus.”

“I’m happy I’m back, but now I have homework,” Bowen sighed.

Lynda Donaldson the Survivor

A first aid trainer spotted her and used a defibrillator which he had in his car boot to revive her.

Now the PSNI has said they will pay for a defibrillator for the town.

Lynda was with her husband when she collapsed.

“I had had no pain, nothing,” she said.

“We had been out for our lunch and were having a good day and just as we got to the door, I felt, all of a sudden, dizzy and went to put my hand out to Grahame to say ‘I feel dizzy’ and I didn’t even get the words out,” she said.

Nurse Michelle McAvoy, who was passing, gave Lynda cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

First aid trainer Philip Batt also happened to be passing and noticed a commotion on the street.

“I thought I was seeing things to be honest,” he said.

“I pulled over and grabbed my equipment out of the back out of the back of the car, the first aid kit, the defibrillator and the oxygen that I was carrying.”

Ms Donaldson has now started a campaign to buy defibrillators.

“You need to get them into schools and get young ones trained and coming through because in a number of years time we’ll have lots of people who are able to do this,” she said.

“If you don’t get the proper assistance within eight to ten minutes you just don’t survive and that is just how critical it is with cardiac arrest,” she said.

“How can I ever thank those people for saving my life? They are just amazing.”

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Jonathan Fussell, 15, was born with a heart defect. At the age of two, he underwent a heart transplant.

In the middle of a Monday class, that heart failed him — sending him into cardiac arrest.

Teacher Josh Smith helped give CPR to Fussell as assistant principal Roland Vernon grabbed a heart defibrillator, or AED.

“He was completely unresponsive and didn’t have a heart beat for a really long time,” Smith said. “Even after our machine shocked him for the first time, he didn’t have a pulse. It was really worrisome.”

But the Bixby faculty didn’t give up, relying on hours of training and the AED to keep him alive until medics arrived.

“Early defibrillation is what got Jonathan the fighting chance that he needed,” said EMSA spokesman Chris Stevens.

On Thursday Fussell was stable enough to fly to Little Rock Children’s Hospital, where he will go back on the transplant list.

Barbara Smart says the quick action of those involved is the reason her grandson is still alive. She believes every school should have defibrillators on sight.

“It is amazing. Every school in the nation needs to have these tools to work with,” she said. “Because you never know when this could happen to a child.”

The young boy’s heart stopped after he was struck in the chest by a pitch during a little league game Monday night.

As we understand from the boy’s father his son is recovering at Albany Medical Center. He says he’s going to be just fine. Things could have been much worse if it were not for the quick action of the Colonie Little League.

“I just want to thank the coaches from Colonie little league,” said Mark Mendrick.

Words alone cannot express how he feels about the people who rushed to his son’s aid when the boy collapsed on the little league field at Cook Park in Colonie Monday night.

His 11-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after he was hit in the chest by pitch during a little league game.

Prevratil, who also was the coach of the other team, was the first to begin CPR.

“There was no panic from anyone, no hysteria,” Prevratil said. “Everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do.”

The boy’s coach, Mike Martin, bolted from the dugout and realized the boy was having trouble breathing, Prevratil said.

When Prevratil saw the boy’s coach needed further assistance, he rushed from his own dugout. On his way to home plate, he heard someone from the stands shout, “Call 911!”

While Martin and Prevratil tended to the boy, he slipped out of consciousness. That’s when Prevratil began CPR.

Prevratil said he performed chest compressions for only about 30 seconds before police arrived.

Colonie Police officer Brian Curran was the first on the scene, and he continued CPR for another minute before the EMT team reached the boy with a defribrillator, Colonie Police Lt. Robert Winn said.

The boy’s heart restarted while he still was lying in the batter’s box, Prevratil said, and he was taken away by ambulance.

EMT’s took over using a defibrillator. They resuscitated the boy and rushed him to Albany Medical Center. Cardiologist doctor Jim O’Brian says what happened to the young player is extremely rare.

“He’s the classic age. It occurs in young boys when the pitch is hard but not so hard,” said O’Brian.

O’Brian says that causes agitation of the heart where the ball hits the chest at exactly the wrong time — disrupting the regular heartbeat. The boy, we’re told is lucky to be alive and doing ok.

“He’s got some hurdles to go. The rest of the kids are taking it fairly well. Some are too little to understand,” said Mendrick.

Meanwhile, Mendrick says he’s received emails from little leagues across the country, wishing for a speedy recovery.

His father told NewsChannel 13, the boy is already sitting up and asking when is he going to be back on the field.

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Jeff Crewe, who teaches physical education at Weston Collegiate Institute, jumped into action Friday morning after 18-year-old Ajethan Ramachandranathan collapsed in the middle of class.

“I was standing at the doorway. Immediately, the other students in the class hollered to me and I ran over to him and looked at him, and he was gasping,” Mr. Crewe recalled. “I looked in his eyes and his eyes were rolled back a bit.”

Jeff Crewe the Saviour

Mr. Ramachandranathan, described by his sister as a tall, athletic teen, lay gasping on the floor as staff called 911. Student teacher Jessica Sung, who was on her last day of training with Mr. Crewe, rushed to fetch the defibrillator, and just in time: As they rolled Mr. Ramachandranathan into the recovery position, he stopped breathing.

At that point, Mr. Crewe said, they gave the 18-year-old a shock with the defibrillator, and continued with chest compressions until the young man began to gasp for breath again. Minutes later, paramedics arrived and took over.

“We train quite regularly for it but to put it into practice was something quite different,” Mr. Crewe said, noting the experience was “stressful, but once we found out the student was doing OK, I felt much better.”

At the time he collapsed, Mr. Ramachandranathan — who has no known heart or lung conditions — had stopped to chat with a fellow student after doing some “light activity,” principal Deborah Blair said.

“We have no idea why it happened,” she added.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Ramachandranathan remained in hospital, awaiting a transfer to Toronto General for tests to hopefully shed light on why he collapsed, said his sister, Sarmela Ramachandranathan. The family was both “shocked” by the incident and “grateful” at the quick response by staff, she said.

“He never had chest pains or anything, and we just get a phone call saying he collapsed,” Ms. Ramachandranathan recalled, noting her brother had not recovered a full memory of what happened that day.

For now, he is doing fine, reading books and keeping himself “as entertained as possible” during his hospital stay, she added.

“We’re very grateful,” Ms. Ramachandranathan added. “It’s amazing how things can happen in seconds, just like that.”

Ms. Blair praised the actions of Mr. Crewe and Ms. Sung, along with vice-principal Bernard Lee, who accompanied Mr. Ramachandranathan to the hospital and remained there for much of Friday to comfort the student’s family. Mr. Crewe reconvened his class afterward to debrief and allow students a chance to discuss their feelings on the incident, she added.

“One of the things that really struck me was how the staff responded so well to the situation and did everything that needed to be done to save a student’s life,” Ms. Blair said.

Ms. Blair also touted the value of defibrillator training, which teachers receive on an annual basis.

“When you think that even the one time, it saved someone’s life — it’s quite remarkable,” she said.

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“Without that, I don’t think there would have been a chance in hell,” said Dr. Randy Smith, who happened to be in the building at the time and who gave him CPR.

It’s unclear exactly what happened to the man. Second-hand accounts say he was reaching for the puck when he suddenly collapsed onto the ice.

As of Tuesday afternoon he was in stable condition in hospital. Doctors were keeping him in a coma as they monitored his condition.

When contacted by The Telegram the man’s family asked that he not be identified.

However, the family did want to pass along their heartfelt thanks to the people who worked hard to save him.

“We do really appreciate everyone that had helped out. Because right now we probably wouldn’t be where we’re at (if not for them). We’d probably be somewhere else — you know what I mean?” said the man’s spouse.

She also provided the update on his condition and said the family was holding up all right under the circumstances.

“He’s not out of the woods, but we’ll just take it one day at a time. There’s lots of prayers being said and all that,” she said.

One of the first things she was told upon arriving at the hospital was that the use of the AED likely kept her husband alive long enough to get to the hospital.

“Without the defibrillator I don’t think he would be here,” she said.

Smith agrees.

A physician for more than 30 years, 15 of which were spent working in the St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital emergency room, Smith was watching junior hockey in the rink opposite to where the man collapsed. The time was between 9:30 and 10 p.m.

“Just out of the blue, this gentleman, this massive big man, comes bouldering through the door … shouting ‘is there anybody here who knows CPR?” recalled Smith.

Answering the call for help, he made his way out onto the ice. The man was flat on his back as Smith checked his vital signs.

He was not drawing breath, and if his heart was beating it was so weak Smith could barely feel it.

He started CPR, compressing the man’s chest as one of the players, still dressed in his gear, provided breath.

This went on for a couple of minutes before one of the Twin Rinks staff fetched one of the two AEDs in the facility.

Between the rink staffer, Smith and the hockey player, the AED was used and the man’s heart started a very faint beat.

They kept up CPR for several more minutes until paramedics arrived and rushed the unconscious man to hospital.

Smith explained that he’s used thousands of defibrillators throughout his career but this was the first time he’d used an automatic one.

Thinking about the Twin Rinks situation in hindsight, he heaped praise on the devices.

“It certainly gives credit to the people who worked so hard to get these things in stadiums,” he said.

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Another patron quickly alerted staff and while a 911 call went out, Marchand ran to evaluate Klinger’s condition.

Wayne Klinger the Survivor

With the help of other people who were working out nearby, Klinger was moved to a firm, flat surface, and Assistant Director Jamie Henkel began CPR while Marchand retrieved the defibrillator.

Henkel was the right person for the job, Marchand said.

“Jamie has been with us about six months, and she had just finished doing CPR training with our lifeguards.” The center’s staff receives regular CPR training from the Mitchell Fire Division, he said.

Henkel quickly put the AED’s paddles on Klinger’s bare chest. The device automatically monitors its subject, and if necessary, administers a shock to restore a regular heartbeat.

It was necessary in Klinger’s case, and the AED shocked him until it got a pulse, Marchand said.

“It shocked him once, and then we found a pulse and he took one huge breath,” Henkel said. “I know I have been sleeping a lot better since I saw his face again.”

Henkel said this was the first time the Medtronic Lifepak defibrillator has been used at the Mitchell Recreation Center since it was installed about five years ago.

“It’s an incredible piece of equipment,” Marchand said.

An artificial electronic voice on the AED tells the user exactly how to proceed and where to place the electronic paddles on the victim’s chest.

“It gives you step-by-step instructions and walks you right through it,” Marchand said.

Klinger wasn’t conscious, but by the time the paramedics rolled him out of the center, the defibrillator had re-established a regular pulse. He was flown to Sioux Falls for further treatment.

Remarkably, Klinger walked into the Rec Center the next Monday, ready for a light workout. That was prior to his second, more serious episode, and Klinger said he was feeling remarkably good.

“It was a pretty emotional experience for all of us when he walked through that door,” Marchand said.

Klinger likes to stay busy. A former owner of Business Products Inc. in Mitchell, he still works part-time as a salesman for BPI.

Up until his collapse at the center, he had always enjoyed good health.

“I never had an issue with my heart,” he said. “I had good blood pressure, low cholesterol and since my 40s I worked out at the center five days a week.”

He plans to take it slower until he completes his cardiac rehab program, but he believes his experience can help others.

“For me, all the right people were in the right place at the right time. My goal is to encourage people to get busy and get these AEDs in all their buildings and have someone trained to use them.

“I mean, how do you put a value on human life?”

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The gym at Decatur High School was a flurry of activity as a boys basketball game against Foss was about to begin. Kazinsky, in his black and white referee stripes, was preparing to officiate the game.

Edward Kazinsky the Survivor

Just before the tip-off, Kazinsky collapsed on the court from sudden cardiac arrest. He was unconscious and not breathing. Immediately, a handful of good Samaritans sprang into action. Decatur staff members Heather White, Sherilyn Olson, Nami Headland and Sian Fankhauser, along with parent Bobbie McLain and a bus driver from Foss, rushed to Kazinsky’s side.

An Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) was located and used, while McLain and Fankhauser began CPR. They continued to work on Kazinsky for about 20 minutes until paramedics arrived at the scene. Paramedics were able to restore Kazinsky’s breathing and transported him to the hospital.

Now, nearly four months later, Kazinsky is on the road to recovery. He tires a little more easily. And he’s a little forgetful sometimes. But he feels better every day. He’s been working outside on his property and playing cribbage. He’s hoping his doctor will clear him to officiate basketball again next fall.

Kazinsky is grateful for all those who came to his aid at Decatur that day. “I thank them for my life,” he said. “They say I’m a miracle to be alive.”

“The true heroes in my opinion are the people who administered CPR on my husband,” Jane Kazinsky said. “They kept him alive until medical services arrived. Our family is so grateful for everything they did to help. He is alive today because of them. Words cannot express how grateful we are to everyone who helped Ed during this crisis. Thank you to all.”