First Aid Corps

A father in his mid-50s who collapsed on his way to watch his daughter’s softball game at Lakeland High School on Wednesday was brought back to life by a trainer and a coach using a portable defibrillator.

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The father, who had lost consciousness and wasn’t breathing when Lakeland athletic trainer Amanda Tiffany and John Jay High School lacrosse coach Patrick Chiappetta rushed to his aid, was recovering in stable condition Thursday at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, school officials said.

“There is a family that is not mourning the loss of a father today because people acted, and that is heavy stuff,” said Chiappetta’s boss, Christian McCarthy, the athletic director for the Katonah-Lewisboro school district. “Their decision to act saved a life, and there is no greater classroom lesson than that.”

It was one of those busy after-school weekdays in spring with multiple games in progress across a single campus, and scores of spectators, players and school officials on the scene.

The man was headed to the junior varsity softball game and was just outside the fence surrounding the school’s all-purpose athletic field when everything stopped. MaryLu Fiori, a Lakeland field monitor, saw the man collapse and yelled for help.

“I knew my AED was at the end of the bench so I grabbed it and I ran as fast as I could across the field,” said Chiappetta, 29, John Jay’s junior varsity girls lacrosse coach and a father of two. “He was in bad shape, on his back, so I hopped the fence and the Lakeland trainer already had his shirt pulled up.”

“I opened my AED and the trainer put the pads on him and pushed the button,” Chiappetta said .

The device can scan for irregular heartbeats and deliver a shock to restore a healthy rhythm. It was enough to bring the man, whom officials declined to identify, back to consciousness.

As Tiffany and Chiappetta were at the man’s side, Yorktown police Officer Larry Paniccia, the school’s resource officer, called 911 and joined in the lifesaving efforts. Mohegan Lake ambulance responded and took him from the scene.

“He is awake and speaking with his family,” Lakeland High School Principal Lorrie Yurish said Thursday. “The family is so grateful.”

A tired but grateful Danny Berger called it a “miracle” that he was back to watch his Utah State basketball teammates play days after collapsing on the court and being revived by an assistant trainer.

Danny Berger the Survivor

Berger was released from a Salt Lake City area hospital Saturday and was back in Logan, flanked by the trainer credited with saving his life and a father who thought the worst upon receiving word of Tuesday’s life-threatening incident while driving in the middle of the Nevada desert.

“I immediately thought Hank Gathers, because I’m from there,” Berger’s father, Brian, said about the Loyola Marymount star who collapsed and died at 23 in 1990 during a West Coast Conference tournament game because of a heart-muscle disorder.

“I didn’t know what to think.”

He quipped that Nevada state troopers let him get away with driving 110 mph as he made his way through the desert toward Utah, where he was headed for the Aggies’ game Wednesday night against Brigham Young. The game was postponed and has since been rescheduled for Feb. 19.

Brian Berger also was grateful for Mike Williams, who is in his 14th year as an assistant athletic trainer at Utah State.

Williams was across the court Tuesday when Berger collapsed during a routine practice.

The 43-year-old Williams had been on site in 2007 when rodeo rider Tag Elliott nearly died after being hit in the head with a bull horn. He was among those who helped stabilize Elliott. But until Tuesday, Williams had only taught CPR and never performed it.

If Tuesday’s scene was chaotic, Williams said he didn’t have time to notice. He yelled for the manager to call 911 and get the automatic defibrillator (AED).

“I remember looking down and starting CPR, mouth to mouth, the compressions and then hooking the AED up,” Williams said. “That’s the worst part, because it takes 15 seconds to analyze and you’re just sitting there waiting.”

The machine finally said “shock advised” and Williams administered the shock, then went back to CPR. On the third set, he heard Berger gurgle a bit and then he blew another really hard breath into him.

“As I pulled up, I actually saw the pulse in his carotid artery before I felt it,” Williams said.

Only afterward, when he tried to call the head trainer, did he realize how traumatic the situation was.

The phone was ringing and ringing but no one answered. Williams finally realized he had dialed 10 random digits and that his hands were shaking.

“Afterward the adrenaline got there, but fortunately that was afterward,” Williams said.

Berger still doesn’t remember any of that, only practicing defense in preparation for the rivalry game, then feeling dizzy as if he had stood up too fast.

“One of my teammates made a shot in my face when I was guarding him and I was kind of upset about it,” he recalled Saturday.

Four days later, he looked forward to a reunion with the rest of his teammates, who will be wearing “12″ patches on the jerseys. First, he wanted a nap.

“I can’t explain everything. It’s just a miracle,” said Danny Berger, his left arm in a sling to protect the miniature defibrillator installed so doctors can monitor his heart remotely should there be any further problems.

Doctors cannot fully explain what caused the 22-year-old to collapse but said he was born with a tendency for this to happen because of his heart having two to three extra beats, according to Dr. Jared Brunch of the Intermountain Medical Center, where he was transported Tuesday via medical helicopter.

The elder Berger said Brunch told him Brunch is much more likely to have a heart attack than Danny and that Danny is less likely to have a problem than anybody on the team because of the defibrillator.

The starting forward remains hopeful he will play again but is taking it day by day. Six weeks is the earliest he can get back out on the court.

“I just have to trust the experts,” Brian Berger said.

Danny’s mom is a little less enthusiastic.

“She just wants me to be in the library for the rest of my life,” Danny joked.

All were grateful to be in Logan, getting ready to watch a basketball game with their son.

“There’s literally dozens of people who have played a role in this whole process just in these last four days,” Brian Berger said. “And every single person has done the exact right thing that they needed to do, starting with Mike. … If it hadn’t been for Mike and the quick response … I’ve got nothing but gratitude.

“Four days ago we didn’t know what was going to happen, and (Friday) Danny was walking on the treadmill. When you have something like this happen, it’s that time period where it’s either fatal or not, or brain damage or not.”

Danny, though he doesn’t remember Williams at his side Tuesday, was glad to have him there Saturday during a news conference before the game against Western Oregon.

“I tried to tell the doctor that I want (Williams) to be my personal defibrillator but they didn’t buy it, they had to put one in there,” Danny Berger said. “I owe Mike a lot. I can’t ever pay him back. He’s one of the smartest guys I know, and a life-long friend.”

Westbrook High’s athletic trainer Anita Dixon was sitting with her four college interns, watching the waning minutes of the first half of the girls junior varsity contest between the Blue Blazes and the Falmouth Yachtsmen, when she was pressed into action.

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“A couple of them had made a comment that that guy, he doesn’t look very good,” stated Dixon. “Needless to say he collapsed later on.”

He was Larry Moreau, a longtime official of local sporting events ranging from basketball to soccer to softball, who apparently suffered a heart attack while working the game.

“We were behind the girls basketball bench and all of a sudden we heard a thud, and it was him that had hit the floor,” she recalled.

Dixon and her students rushed to Moreau’s side and assessed the situation.

“When we did first get to him he was unconscious, but he was breathing and had very weak pulse,” she explained. “Later on, he ended up not breathing, and we had to use the AED to shock him to get his heart back in rhythm.”

The automated external defibrillator, or AED, saved Moreau’s life. An ambulance crew arrived soon there after and transported him to Maine Medical Center where he underwent emergency surgery and is in satisfactory condition.

“My training staff did a wonderful job,” said first year Westbrook athletic director, Marc Sawyer. “It was as organized and precise as a tough situation can be.”

“I think it is important that we recognize that technology and expertise really saved the day yesterday,” he added. “I don’t think there is any question, without the AED last night, we might be having a little bit different conversation here today.”

Anita Dixon says she is not a hero for saving Moreau’s life.

“I am grateful that he is still here and it doesn’t matter what I did,” she said. “It is just that the guy is in stable condition and that we did what we needed to do in order for him to still be here.”

Sawyer met with student athletes from both schools to talk with them about the traumatic situation, and says they have already begun having discussions about planning a fundraiser to raise money to buy AED’s and generate awareness about the life-saving devices.

A Knoxville teenager spent Tuesday recovering from a heart-stopping situation at Central High School. The student’s family says the scene today would be very different if not for the quick reaction of coaches and some emergency medical equipment.

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“He plays baseball and wants to be the next Todd Helton,” said Ronnie Helton about his 14-year-old son, Hunter. “But this year he decided to go out for basketball.”

Hunter Helton was running inside the Central High School gym Monday afternoon when he collapsed.

“All I remember was running and I had like a heartburn in my chest. I don’t remember anything after that,” said Hunter. “I woke up in the hospital.”

“Coach Higgins at Central High School, he said Hunter was just running and he veered off and hit the floor. There was no notice or nothing. He thought it was a seizure,” said Ronnie Helton. “I know Coach Higgins did CPR and it was through his training and that AED that saved Hunter’s life.”

“What the AED does is read the rhythm of the heart and then if a shock is necessary, as it was in this case, it shocks the heart back into a normal rhythm,” said Jennings. “There are cases where schools had AEDs and were afraid to use them. There are studies that show a 5th grader can safely operate an AED.”

The AED also saved a readout for doctors to see exactly how Hunter’s heart responded.

“It shocked his [Hunter's] heart three different times,” said a tearful Ronnie Helton. “In two minutes and 49 seconds his heart beat one time. And they shocked him two more times and at 3:49 his heart jumped back into rhythm.”

Hunter’s mother said she is thankful the medical crisis struck while he was at school.

“He wouldn’t be here today if he wasn’t at the school and they didn’t have a defibrillator and they didn’t work so quickly,” said Kelly Helton.

“I’d just like to thank all the basketball players over there that helped me and all the coaches and medical staff,” said Hunter.

Hunter’s next step is a trip to Vanderbilt in Nashville for more extensive heart tests. After that doctors will know if and when Hunter may be able to play sports again. For now, Hunter’s family is just thankful he is alive and grateful for a device they had never heard of before Monday.

“It could have been anybody’s child and it could have been at any school and them not have one [an AED],” said Ronnie Helton. “Thank God for those AEDs.”

An animated Rich Keller recently stood at third base on a beautiful spring afternoon, his hands delivering a series of signals that let his batter know she should lay down a bunt.

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No one would ever guess that Schaumburg High School’s freshman softball coach had collapsed — just one month earlier — at that very spot on the team’s home field.

“The girls thought I was just messing around, laying on the ground trying to sun myself or something,” Keller, 63, recalled. “Turns out, I was in trouble.”

Rich Keller the Survivor

And a nearby automatic external defibrillator saved him.

Fortunately Lake Zurich’s Keller, a lot went right in the crucial moments after an often fatal ventricular fibrillation caused his cardiac arrest.

There was Joe Boshold, the alert parent who raced from the stands to start chest compressions. There also was Kelly Wika, the Schaumburg High School athletic trainer stationed nearby.

And, perhaps most importantly, there was the quickly accessible automatic external defibrillator.

With it located just steps away at the adjacent varsity girls softball field, Wika grabbed the portable device, ran back and gave the unconscious and pulseless Keller two shocks that stabilized him and bought time until paramedics arrived.

Keller’s doctor told him he was among only 5 percent of patients who survive such an episode. And of those who live, only 20 percent have no debilitating effects afterward.

“The whole thing is kind of miraclelike because 12 days later, my grandson was born,” Keller said. “I couldn’t help but think I almost didn’t meet him.”