First Aid Corps

On Monday afternoon, Aviles, 13, was set to begin a weekly workout at World Gym. After a five-minute warm up, Aviles took a water break.

Edgar Aviles the Survivor

When his trainer, Oscar Carranza, called the young boy to begin the workout session, Aviles stood up and immediately fell to the ground onto his stomach.

“It happened so fast, he didn’t even get to close his water bottle. Edgar was not breathing, there was no pulse and he was starting to turn blue,” Carranza said.

At that point, Jordan Ramirez, a sales rep at the gym who received his CPR certification last Thursday, ran to the boy after Carranza called for his help.

“I didn’t feel a pulse, so I told Oscar we had to conduct CPR,” Ramirez said. “You could tell when Edgar was coming back to life, you could see him come in and out.”

Within three minutes, EMTs arrived on the scene and immediately used a defibrillator that brought the boy back to life.

He was then transported to Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, where doctors stabilized his condition.

The next day, Edgar was transferred to University Medical Center of El Paso, where he was diagnosed with arrhythmic heart failure and an enlarged heart.

Elizabeth Aviles was at the gym during her son’s near-death encounter. She said she last talked to Edgar when he came to ask for a water bottle and went back to his workout. She was at another part of the facility when her son collapsed and did not witness the quick response by the two World Gym employees.

“I really thought I was going to lose my son,” Aviles said. “If it wasn’t for Oscar and Jordan my son wouldn’t be alive.”

It happened March 23rd, during the first class of the day.

Gym teacher Ken Haines said, “The class was doing a mile timed run. He was up toward the front and he was running strong, completed one lap, he was running around and right in this area right here, I saw him collapse down on all fours, seconds later he was just totally unresponsive.”

He was talking about seventh grader Travis Arnold. He radioed nursing assistant Tressa Palmer immediately, and sent students to get help.

“Two girls from the middle school came running and said that they needed me on the track, that a student was down,” said Palmer.

Two other staff members got the school’s defibrillator, or A.E.D. as she ran to the track. “I went over to Mr. Haines, he told me to try and see if I could find a pulse. I could not, Travis was still unconscious,” said Palmer.

Haines said, “She got the AED got right out here, I continued CPR while she hooked him up to the AED and shocked him and she started chest compressions and I was doing the breaths.”

His father, David Arnold remembers the call from the school secretary. “‘The word defibrillator was used’, and I said you only use a defibrillator on someone’s whose heart stopped. And she said Mr. Arnold you need to get to the hospital right now.”

What happened to the him was later called a sudden death episode. His parents say if the stars we not aligned that day, it all would be different. It seems everyone was in the right place at the right time.

A month later, Travis was back to school, and now, he’s just about back to doing all the things he used to do. “Yeah, 99 percent,” said Travis. He’s a man of few words, and thanks his favorite teacher. Dad is thankful he’s here to do it. “Like that day, I was just thankful I got to hug my son again.”

As the staff members and EMTs were honored, the gym teacher that saved his life said, “Travis, thanks for pulling through buddy, I appreciate that, and so does everyone else here”

Ironically, that gym teacher Ken Haines, collapsed in high school during a soccer game, was taken to the same hospital, and saved by a defibrillator.

Francis Howell Middle School’s seventh-grader Austin Redd, 13, collapsed to the floor at the start of class and went into cardiac arrest about 12:45 p.m., officials said.

St. Charles County Deputy Ron Neupert, 50, the school’s resource officer, raced to the gym and found Austin unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse. Neupert started CPR and radioed for an ambulance.

The school’s nurse, Lynne Finnerty, shocked Austin’s heart once with the school’s automatic external defibrillator.

View World Map on AED Locations in a larger map
Shortly after, Austin regained consciousness.

“It seemed like forever, but within a few seconds, he began to breathe on his own and you could see he was coming around,” Neupert said.

Austin is expected to recover.

Marty Limpert, a spokesman for the St. Charles County Ambulance District, said the incident illustrates the need for AEDs in schools and staff trained in life-saving procedures.

“There’s no doubt that they saved his life,” Limpert said.

“It’s awesome,” Neupert said of Austin’s recovery. “These kids are my kids, and I care about every single one of them.”

Francis Howell Middle School Principal Amy Johnston said that Thursday was the first time the school has used its AED since it was installed about eight years ago.

And “hopefully the last,” she said.

Fifteen minutes before dismissal at Bismarck-Henning Junior High School quickly became the longest minutes of Josie Siddens’ life.

Siddens, the nurse for the school district, was returning to her office March 25 when a student came running up, telling her 12-year-old Ashton Norwell was screaming in the gymnasium.

Norwell was being led to Siddens’ office because he felt sick when he began to cry out in pain. But by the time Siddens — who was only seconds from the gymnasium — arrived, the boy was unresponsive and not breathing.

From there, Siddens went into action, moving the boy to the gym floor with the help of a gym teacher while Principal Rusty Campbell called 911. Another gym teacher stepped into the hallway to retrieve an automated external defibrillator hanging on the wall.

“I was looking at (the scene) saying ‘This is not happening here,’” said Siddens, a part-time emergency room nurse at Provena United Samaritans Medical Center. “From there it was just gut reaction.”

Siddens said she used the defibrillator immediately and then began CPR. She repeated the process, but was getting no response from Ashton, who had turned blue.

“I was scared the entire time, but from the second shock on I was saying ‘C’mon, buddy. C’mon, Ashton,’” Siddens recounted.

Suddenly, following the third shock from the defibrillator, Ashton drew a quick gasp of air.

Oxygen provided by Bismarck Community Ambulance helped bring him around and by the time Medix Ambulance personnel arrived, the lifeless boy was cracking jokes at his school nurse.

“There’s never been a better sound in my life than hearing him talk to me,” she said. “It was just fantastic.”

It may have only been a few minutes, but the scene was emotionally draining for Siddens.

“I’m fine during the emergency, I can handle myself well during the emergency,” she said. “But immediately after the emergency, not so well. Lots of people held me up after that.”

Just after noon, a 7-year-old boy was celebrating at a holiday party with his classmates at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Boston, said Matthew Wilder, spokesman for the Boston public schools.

Suddenly, he became unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest, Wilder said. It is unclear what triggered the problem.

School nurses immediately rushed to the classroom where the party was taking place and began performing CPR on the boy, Wilder said.

They also used a defibrillator.

Three minutes later, emergency medical technicians arrived and found the boy was not breathing and had no pulse. Paramedics arrived on the scene a few minutes later.

Emergency workers managed to revive the child, but he was not breathing on his own when they transported him across the street to Tufts Medical Center, according to emergency officials.

“The school nurse really should be praised,” said Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Boston Emergency Medical Services. “Those quick actions are really what save someone’s life.”

He is still listed as in critical condition.