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Meanwhile, Fayette County Public Schools officials said the student received prompt treatment in accordance with established emergency action plans.

Benjamin Highland the Survivor

“How it was handled with the trainer and coaches … everything was done as it should have been done,” Fayette Schools athletics director Don Adkins said during a news conference at the school district’s central office.

Benjamin Highland, an eighth-grader at Jessie Clark, collapsed about 5:30 p.m. Monday on the baseball field at Lafayette High School, where he was participating in conditioning drills in preparation for tryouts for Lafayette’s baseball team later this month. Highland apparently planned to try out, district officials said.

Highland was rushed to the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, where he was reported in critical condition Tuesday morning. His condition was upgraded to serious Tuesday afternoon.

Fayette high schools director Mike McKenzie said a veteran high school trainer, various Lafayette coaches and passersby pitched in to help when the boy was stricken.

The trainer, Jenni Williams, directed coaches to dial 911, treated Highland with an external defibrillator and then administered CPR while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, he said. A nurse who lives in the area and was out walking her dog saw what was happening and rushed in to help with CPR, while an off-duty police officer at the scene helped by making sure the ambulance could get onto the ballfield quickly, according to McKenzie.

District officials were trying to get the nurse’s name so they could thank her.

“It really was a team effort by a lot of people on the sidelines who jumped in and helped out,” he said.

McKenzie particularly credited Williams, a veteran trainer. Williams, who serves the school district under a contract with UK, was declining comment Tuesday, university officials said.

“With the adrenalin and emotion after such an event, she was pretty shook for a while last night,” McKenzie said. “She’s fine. But in the moments after such a situation where you’ve just helped a young person survive … .

“In talking with her last night … we thanked her and told her job well done. Her first response was, ‘It was a team effort.’”

Meanwhile, Fayette middle schools director Kelley Ransdell said the district sent support staff to Jessie Clark on Tuesday morning to help faculty members in offering support to students arriving for classes. Eighth-grade teachers spent extra time with their homeroom students Tuesday morning to explain what had happened and make counseling available if requested, Ransdell said.

“District support staff … reported to me this morning that things were going really well and that students were already in the mode of preparing some get-well cards,” she said.

Ransdell said Jessie Clark students were “really concerned” about their stricken classmate, “as we all are.”

According to Fayette school district officials, Highland and at least six other eighth-graders were participating in the drills Monday when the incident occurred.

It is not unusual for talented eighth-grade players to try out for high school baseball teams. At least 10 eighth-graders were on Lafayette’s roster last year, according to the school’s Web site.

The conditioning drills at Lafayette had been going on for several days, according to district officials.

McKenzie said he didn’t know the specific kind of drills that being used Monday. But he said no “hard-running activity” was involved. According to Ransdell, the drills already had started Monday afternoon when the middle school students arrived and started to take part.

McKenzie said the players had completed a drill and were transitioning to another when Highland collapsed. “One of the kids yelled ‘Coach;’ they looked over and saw a young man start to go down,” he said.

According to McKenzie, Lafayette head baseball coach Chris Langston rushed to Highland’s side and “determined immediately that they needed the trainer and called the trainer who was just inside the gym.”

When Williams arrived, she directed an assistant coach to dial 911 and sent another to bring the defibrillator. She then began CPR, McKenzie said.

McKenzie said he didn’t know how long CPR was administered before an ambulance arrived. He also said he didn’t know how long the conditioning drills had been going on before the boy collapsed.

David Wilganowski the Survivor

But he had never seen anything like what happened in the Rangers’ game against Leander Rouse three weeks ago.

“I’ve watched it plenty of times,” Wilganowski said. “It’s eerie, but it doesn’t bother me. What am I going to do? It happened.”

What happened at Merrill Green Stadium on the night of Sept. 2 changed Wilganowski’s life. But his life didn’t end, thanks to medical personnel with the necessary equipment and training.

Wilganowski collapsed on the field in the fourth quarter of a tied game and went into cardiac arrest. Rudder trainer Jamie Woodall and her staff used an automated external defibrillator (AED) to restart Wilganowski’s heart. He was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph Regional Health Center, then later that night was flown by helicopter to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Eleven days later at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Wilganowski underwent surgery in which a defibrillator was placed in his chest. He was released from the hospital and visited Rudder’s football practice the next day, and two days after that he was on the sideline cheering for his teammates as they played Houston C.E. King last Friday in their first game back at Merrill Green Stadium since the incident.

Wilganowski’s memory of his final game is like a video with a segment deleted. He remembers everything before the game, through three quarters and into the fourth period. Wilganowski does not remember the defensive series when Rudder forced the punt play after which he collapsed.

Woodall remembers that play. As is her habit, Woodall scanned the field, checking to make sure all the players got up. The last player she saw was Wilganowski, far from the football, toppling forward like a giant tree, unable to extend his arms to cushion the fall.

“I didn’t wait for a referee’s signal or anything,” Woodall said. “I ran out there. He was having trouble breathing, and when we turned him over he took his last breath.”

Woodall tears up at the memory. She and Bryan trainer Josh Woodall, her husband, are committee members of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Even before Nader’s incident, the Woodalls made sure there were AEDs at Bryan and Consolidated. Woodall was an assistant trainer with the Tigers when Nader collapsed.

“Knowing that behind me there were all these BISD employees making those phone calls and taking care of those things like getting the gates opened and barricades removed … knowing that was going on behind me was very comforting.” Woodall said.

Rudder assistant trainer Mike Lozano used scissors to remove Wilganowski’s jersey and shoulder pads. Woodall applied the AED, which works automatically and is different from the paddle-style device that most people picture when they think of defibrillators.

The crowd fell silent as the slender young woman began chest compression on the player, with some fans openly praying. Woodall had never used an AED to revive anyone.

“Every experience I’ve had as well as every training I’ve ever been in certainly prepared me for that moment,” Woodall said. “I’m very, very proud to say that in both incidents, with Matt and David, there was good protocol, there was preparation and there were athletic trainers on site to get those things rolling in the right direction.”

Woodall makes sure to share credit for Wilganowski’s treatment. She invited all 17 of Rudder’s student trainers to the Bryan school board meeting Tuesday when she and her staff were honored for helping Wilganowski.

“It is a good recognition for athletic trainers and that’s what I would like for people to take from this,” Woodall said. “Not just that proper protocol was followed, but that there were trained professionals there. Not everybody has that. There are many stories of people who didn’t make it, where there were no athletic trainers or AEDs, or if there were, no one thought to go get it.”

“I don’t feel cheated at all, because I’m still here,” Wilganowski said. “I do feel like I didn’t get as much accomplished as I wanted to, but I can do more with this [experience] than I could with football.

“I have mechanical engineering down [as my major]. Who knows? Some day I could be designing these,” he said, tapping his chest over the defibrillator.

Wilganowski hopes his story will help spread the word about the importance of having AEDs at athletic competitions and of training school personnel to handle life-threatening situations.

Bill Curtis the Survivor with Tom Hendley and Ed Neace the Saviours

Thanks to the quick response of his fellow players, Tom Hendley and Ed Neace, and the fact that the league recently purchased a defibrillator to take to its games, Curtis is alive and well and able to tell his story.

“I remember reaching second base. After that, the next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital four days later,” said Curtis, who prior to the event had never had any health problems and had never been hospitalized.

Bill’s wife, Nancy, was at his bedside when he awoke.

“The first thing he said when he woke up was that he remembered hitting the ball hard over Ed’s head in the outfield and how mad Ed was,” Nancy Curtis said.

After Bill Curtis hit his double, the next batter hit a ball to the outfield to Neace.

“There were two outs, so Bill was running from second to third. Then he took off for home, hoping I’d miss the ball,” Neace, 63, said. “I caught it. I was coming in from the outfield when I saw it happen.”

Neace said Bill Curtis stumbled a little and then went head first into the fence.

“I didn’t realize it at the time. I was running back to the dugout from the field, then I saw someone lying down on the ground. I said, ‘Who’s down? Who’s down?’ Then I saw it was Bill. I rushed over to him and Tom was already there,” Neace said. “He said, ‘Call 911. He’s not responding.”

Just a few weeks before Bill Curtis’ cardiac arrest, several of the Henderson County Senior League softballers had participated in a CPR training class conducted by Dan Hayes of the EMS. Hendley, the Senior League’s president, had suggested the class for his fellow players and also suggested that they purchase a defibrillator to have at all their games.

“We had the training about 4-5 weeks earlier, and praise the Lord we had that training,” Neace said.

Hendley, 66, a retired police officer from New Jersey, was the first to see Bill Curtis go down.

“I went to him and turned him over, and he had a gash on his head where he had hit the fence,” Hendley said. “So I didn’t know if he had just tripped and hit the fence and that was his problem or if the problem had happened before that. When I saw that he was unresponsive, I knew the problem happened before he hit the fence.”

Without hesitation, Hendley and Neace put their training into action.

“So then I opened up his airway and tried to help him to breathe, and then I saw his eyes roll back, I knew we had lost him,” Hendley said.

Hendley immediately got the defibrillator and hooked Bill Curtis to it.

“The machine takes a few seconds to analyze, and it will tell you whether or not a shock is needed. When I hooked Bill up to it, it said ‘shock advised,’ so we shocked him. His body went clean off the ground, and we all stood back,” Hendley said. “It’s quite a jolt.”

“It’s a good thing I didn’t remember that,” Bill Curtis laughed.

After Hendley felt a faint pulse from the shock of the defribillator, he was trying to get Bill Curtis to breathe while Neace did chest compressions.

“We were both focused and working so feverishly to help Bill that we didn’t even notice the EMS guys arrive,” Hendley said.

“I was doing the chest compressions when I got tapped on the shoulder. It was the EMS guy, and I kept working and said, ‘Hang on, I’m still working on him.’ After the EMS guy took over, I had a sigh of relief,” Neace said.

“We were so into what we were doing, we didn’t know how much time had passed,” Hendley said.

“I know it wasn’t long before the EMS guys were there, but from the time he went down to the time they arrived, it seemed like an eternity. Everything was like in slow motion,” Neace said.

When EMS did take over CPR, Bill Curtis went into cardiac arrest again.

“The EMS guys got there and worked on him and then had to shock him again,” Hendley said. “Then they got him on the ambulance and took him to Pardee (Hospital).”

Bill Curtis’ nightmare wasn’t over yet. His heart stopped twice more in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

“They said he died four times … twice on the field and twice in the ambulance,” Neace said.

“That means he has five lives left,” Nancy Curtis said.

Once he was revived and doctors performed tests on him in the ICU, there was great news.

“The doctors said there was no heart or brain damage,” Neace said.

“The doctors said they were expecting to find some kind of blockage in the arteries and they were fully expecting to have to do heart surgery. They found nothing. They said I had a healthy heart, and they still have no clue why it stopped that day,” Bill Curtis said.

There were no warning signs for Bill Curtis, and on his official discharge papers from the hospital, the diagnosis was “sudden cardiac death.”

“They say there’s only like a 6 percent chance of surviving that,” Bill Curtis said.

Nancy Curtis remembers the call and was preparing for the worst when she made her way to Jackson Park that day.

“What’s strange is that Bill and I had talked just the night before about what would we do if something happened to one of us. We’ve been together 45 years, and being together with someone that long, I truly believe you get a sixth sense about someone. It was like we knew something was about to happen,” she said.

Bill Curtis is getting used to his new lifestyle after the event. Now, he has a device that will shock his heart, along with a pacemaker to regulate it, if cardiac arrest happens again.

One thing he’s having a hard time adjusting to is the fact that he can’t drive.

“I guess the law is that if you die, you aren’t allowed to drive for six months,” Nancy Curtis said.

But he will be allowed to get back on the field in just six weeks.

“That’s incredible when you think about it and when you witnessed what we did that day,” Neace said. “But if you knew what kind of a person Bill is, it wouldn’t really surprise you. He runs three miles a day, and he’s in better shape than most anyone on that field. He was the last person in the world I thought that would happen to.”

Bill Curtis has already been back to the field, cheering on his fellow players, but he’s itching to get the bat in his hands once again.

“He’s a great player, and we can’t wait to get him back,” Hendley said.

And Bill’s wife isn’t about to hold him back from the sport he loves.

“I truly believe that if Bill would’ve been home with me that day, and I live just a quarter-mile from Mission Hospital, he would be dead or brain damaged. It would’ve taken too long for trained help to arrive,” she said.

“For women worried about their men playing softball, let me say this: There is no safer place for your man to be than at Jackson Park on any Tuesday or Friday if it doesn’t rain or snow.”

Coyne, 49, was playing an 8:45 p.m. match at Kemp Field in Folsom.

He’d just been subbed back in after a breather and the ball was down at the other end of the long field.

“As I ran onto the field, I said, ‘I don’t feel too well,’ and that’s all I remember.

As in: That’s all he remembers between Oct. 27, when he collapsed, and Wednesday, when his head began to clear after surgery to implant a heart defibrillator.

“Today I feel great,” Coyne said Thursday. “According to my wife, yesterday and the day before I was pretty incoherent.”

That he’s alive at all is thanks to the fact that two of his Turn Verein soccer teammates – unbeknown to Coyne – were an emergency medical technician and a Mercy General Hospital cardiac rehab program director.

“None of them (his cardiac patients) ever collapsed on me in the middle of exercise,” said Ken Rogaski, the rehab coordinator, who did chest compressions to keep Coyne’s heart going until Folsom Fire Department paramedics arrived.

“I’m so glad he said something,” said Rogaski. “Everyone was looking in the exact opposite direction.”

Rogaski’s quick actions make Coyne a rarity, a person who had a heart attack outside the hospital and survived.

“Their chances of surviving are less than 5 percent,” said Bryan Gardner, a spokesman for Mercy Hospitals.

Rogaski and another team member heard Coyne breathing, but found his pulse was irregular and weak.

Rogaski, trained in an advanced version of CPR, started the compressions.

Coyne was taken to Mercy Folsom where he was stabilized and his body cooled – a method used in recent years to give the body’s organs a better chance of surviving after severe cardiac problems.

Then he was transferred to Mercy General in Sacramento for surgery to install a cardioverter-defibrillator.

His family lives in Placerville, but his wife, Marjorie, and 18-year-old daughter Paris had to rush back from Mexico City, where Paris had a modeling job. He also has a son, John, 16.

Coyne thought he was in good shape, playing soccer three or four times a week.

His wife reminded him, “You have a history of passing out.” He would get light-headed getting up from bed.

“Not always,” Coyne said, knowing he should’ve had it checked out before.

His teammates learned something from the incident, too. The day after the attack, Rogaski ran into another teammate at a youth soccer game.

“He had already enrolled in CPR training,” Rogaski said.

“They just need to know how to do that,” Gardner said.

“Actually, I’m going to have to take a CPR class,” Coyne said.

He hopes to be back at work in a week or so. “I’m a graphic designer. It doesn’t take much to sit down and open a computer.” His online profile at his firm describes him as a “soccer fiend.”

He feels blessed to be doing anything.

“I wouldn’t be here if Ken wasn’t on our team,” he said. “I’d be dead.”

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Fortunately, two off-duty nurses were watching the game and gave him valuable resuscitation (CPR) until the First Responders arrived with a defibrillator, a portable piece of life saving equipment that delivers an electric shock through the chest wall to help restore the heart’s normal rhythm.

Rob Farnfield the Survivor

He was then taken by air ambulance to the University Hospital Coventry.

Rob, who was unconscious throughout most of the ordeal, was told he was resuscitated seven times.

He said: “There were about ten minutes to go in the game when I collapsed on the pitch. There was no warning or any pain. It was as if someone had just turned the power off.”

He added: “I felt fine beforehand. I’m reasonably fit, don’t have blood pressure or the things you would associate with a heart problems

After having a stent fitted, Rob spent five days in hospital recovering before taking on cardiac rehabilitation at the Whitworth Centre in Darley Dale.

He now takes part in gym sessions especially for heart patients, at Arc Leisure Matlock and within less than a year has gone from being able to walk just a few feet to walking from Matlock to Derby.

Rob has not refereed at Matlock Rugby Club since his heart attack but has been to the club base, at Cromford Meadows, many times since and the charity has paid for a defibrillator for the club house.

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The boy, whose name has not been released, was on the field when he suddenly collapsed, coach Tim Spoonemore said. Unaware of how severe the boy’s injury may be, Spoonemore and coach Brad Averitte rushed on to the field and turned the boy over with Averitte bracing the athlete’s neck.

Adults Honored for Saving Collapsed Azle 7th Grader: MyFoxDFW.com

The coaches quickly realized the boy was unresponsive and had no pulse. While Spoonemore began performing CPR, Averitte continued to brace the boy’s neck while talking to him, comforting him and trying to get him to respond. After a short time, a parent stepped in and took over CPR while Spoonemore left to get one of two automated external defibrillators.

Rita White, a nurse with the district who happened to be watching the game from the stands, said she ran onto the field to help when she saw that the coaches had started CPR. A short time later assistant principal Brian Roberts arrived with the first AED. White, who trains district employees to use the device, then used the device on the player — and he began to breathe.

“I saw his stomach start moving, and that was just the greatest thing,” Spoonemore said during a news conference Wednesday. “When I saw him … getting in the ambulance and he was breathing, that just made my heart jump out of my body almost.”

The player was eventually rushed by helicopter to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where he remains Wednesday.

The boy’s family has decided not to speak publicly, but did say Wednesday morning that their son is in good condition and that everyone involved in saving their son’s life is a hero.

“It was a team effort. Everyone was here. Everyone had a very important part. No one person is a hero,” said White.

“Going over the scenario again and reliving what everybody in the community from the coaches, to the nurses, to the parents, to the administration, everything that they’ve done has really made today a fantastic day. A young man has life, a father has a son, a mother has a son and it doesn’t get any better than that,” said Averitte.

Azle superintendent Ray Lea arrived at Azle Junior High School minutes after it happened Tuesday and said the entire experience was surreal and that he is the world’s biggest fan of having AEDs on campus.

“Everybody there was in tears and just really shocked. This is just unheard of at a junior high school football game. It was surreal,” Lea said. “I couldn’t be any more proud of my staff to perform the way they did and rescue this young man. I don’t think the young man would be here without the AED.”

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“As I’m sitting here talking to you, I really shouldn’t be,” said Askari, soccer player.

Askari, 51, was playing with his adult soccer team in Balch Springs when his heart stopped.

“All of a sudden I felt dizzy,” Askari recalled. “I felt my knee gave up. And I was just getting closer to the ground. But I didn’t feel the hitting. I remember that I wanted to keep going but I couldn’t.”

Surveillance video from Premier Park in Balch Springs showed the fuzzy mob of team-mates gathering around his fallen body on the soccer field.

Two doctors on the team started CPR.

It was a player on the other team who offered a life-saving assist..

“And I yelled out to them,” said Chris LeBlanc, who played for the Balch Springs team, “Hey do you need the defibrillator?

Surveillance video captures LeBlanc running to the complex building, retrieving the AED, and handing it off to one of Askari’s teammates.

Unlike UIL sanctioned youth events, automated external defibrillators or AED’s are not required for recreational or adult sports leagues.

The ‘Over 40′ aged players at Premier Park in Balch Springs insisted on having an AED handy.

“The majority of our players are older,” says Larry Hall, president of Premier Park. “And they requested that we have a difib here just in case. It’s one of those things where you hope you never need to use, but you hope you have it just in case you do.”

“The first attempt I hear did not work,” says Askari. “Nothing happened. Second attempt, I came back.”

Two days later, Askari had a defibrillator implanted surgically.

While he may never be cleared to play soccer again, he’s expected to recover fully.

He was given a signed game ball signed by members of both teams who witnessed his collapse.

Ali Askari believes the only reason he avoided an unexpected and ultimate red card is because there were two doctors and an AED at the game.

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“He also plays basketball and baseball. So he’s very active and he’s kin of accelerated at anything sports related,” said Kyle Cook, Ross’s uncle. Ross’s football coach, Kyle Patterson, added, “He’s a three-way player at this school. He’s a phenomenal athlete.”

On Monday the team had a hard practice. Tuesday’s practice was focused more on teaching the kids. By the end of practice instead of being gathered around one of the coaches, the football players would be gathered around one of their own, praying.

Ross and other teammates were doing some light conditioning. He ran up a small hill onto another field. It was then that he called a teammate’s name and then collapsed to the field.

Ross Palmer the Survivor

“We immediately called 911. I got to him. I checked for a pulse and to see if he was breathing and we had neither,” said Coach Patterson.

A heart that had helped Ross excel in sports had simply stopped. Coaches quickly and calmly started doing what they had been trained to do. They took turns doing chest compressions while checking for breathing and a pulse. Coach Patterson had also sent someone to get the Automated External Defibrillator from the school cafeteria.

“You open it up. You take the pads out. You put them on him and turn it on….You push the red button and he jumps a couple inches off the ground. It was really scary. But immediately we got a pulse and he started breathing on his own,” remember Patterson.

Palmer’s uncle underscored the importance of the AED saying, “If it had been 10 years or so ago when even I was playing sports I wouldn’t have been able to make it because they didn’t have that equipment there.”

Coach Patterson is humble in accepting congratulations for being able to be calm and handle the situation. He says it was a group effort and he’s glad they had the AED on campus. “Grateful for the training, yeah, but it’s the machine that did the work. Whoever invented that machine needs a pat on the back and if I ever meet the guy I’ll shake his hand and tell him, ‘Thank You!’ because of him we have Ross Palmer.”

Ross was taken to the American Falls Hospital. He then was transferred to Portneuf Medical Center. By that time he was conscious and giving a thumbs up to everyone who cared about him. And now, Coach Patterson has a new message for Ross, his team and anyone else listening.

“Yeah, he may never play football again…But there’s a lot more important things, a lot better things to come in his life because of the different group effort of the people in this school and this school district.”

Ross had surgery Friday in Salt Lake City so doctors could put a defibrillator in his chest to start his heart if it ever stops again.

Ex-chairman of Longstone GAA, Hugh Rodgers, who was at the match on Sunday, said he saw Mr Tumelty suddenly collapse while running.

“The game was coming very close to the end and as he was running he fell flat on his face.

“I thought he had tripped but it became clear he was in grave danger. It became quickly apparent it was serious,” he said.

“It took a few minutes for it to transfer through that it wasn’t a broken ankle, and therefore it (the match) would be cancelled.”

The 46-year-old from Ballykinler was treated on the pitch by medical staff at around 9pm. It is the second time in two weeks that the device has been used pitch-side in Northern Ireland.

As recently as last month a defibrillator was used on Chris McNeill (17), after he collapsed while playing in a Milk Cup match in Portstewart on July 25.

On Sunday medics from both teams as well as three doctors watching the game came to the referee’s assistance when he collapsed during the last few minutes of injury time. One Burren team member who works as a dentist placed Mr Tumelty in the recovery position before the defibrillator was used to revive him.

He was rushed to nearby Daisy Hill Hospital before being transferred to Craigavon Area hospital yesterday afternoon where he is now in a stable condition.

Mr Rodgers said he didn’t believe Mr Tumelty suffered from a serious health problem and added that referees at senior level would have a high degree of fitness.

Jim Van Cleve the Survivor

He was near death.

It was his lucky day.

An emergency medical technician was working the game and a cardiologist was in the crowd for the June 26 Bristol Alumni and Athletic Association seventh annual exhibition softball classic at the Bristol Borough Little League Field. And EMT Ken Hopkins remembered to bring along his automatic emergency defibrillator.

Both saw Van Cleve fall.

“The crowd started acting funny …,” said Hopkins, of the Bucks County Rescue Squad. “I ran to my truck and grabbed medical equipment used to treat cardiac arrest.”

At first Hopkins thought Van Cleve, 72, was having a seizure, but then he stopped breathing. Dr. Daniel Vile from Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia knew he was suffering a heart attack.

Hopkins and Vile arrived at Van Cleve’s side about the same time. Vile began administering CPR, then Hopkins used the AED.

“I remember earlier that day I was on bike detail and remembered to bring the AED with me to the softball game,” Hopkins said. “That device saved Jim’s life.”

Van Cleve of Bristol Township had stopped breathing and his heart had gone into an abnormal rhythm when the EMT defibrillated him several times to bring back his pulse. Minutes later, he was placed on a stretcher in an ambulance and an IV of lidocaine was placed in his leg, to stabilize his irregular heart rhythm. Still unconscious, he began breathing on his own on the way to Lower Bucks Hospital, where he woke up shortly after.

“All I remember is getting ready to run to the next base and then waking up in a hospital room,” Van Cleve said. “It’s still hard to believe.”

Hopkins, Vile and Van Cleve met Tuesday, the first time since the incident, at the same field.

“Ken and Daniel saved my life. I believe what happened that day was a miracle,” Van Cleve said, wiping tears from his eyes. “After I got out of the hospital I heard that when Ken was giving me medical treatment during the game, many players and people in the stands crowded around home plate and said a prayer for me. There were an awful lot of angels there.”

And the AED.

“In my 15 years as a firefighter, first responder and EMT, I’ve been involved in two cases like this where the person survived the heart attack,” Hopkins said. “In these cases, they survived because an AED was used.”

Van Cleve’s heart attack and subsequent treatment shines a light on a bigger problem: the lack of AEDs in the community, said Hopkins.

“We need these devices in more places in the community,’’ he said. “Whether it’s the baseball field, supermarket or any public place, we need them and training for people on how to use them.”

Even if CPR is performed, defibrillation from an AED is required to stop the abnormal rhythm and restore a normal heart rhythm, according to the American Heart Association website.

Without that, Van Cleve wouldn’t be making plans to play in next year’s softball game.

“I feel great now, I just got back from a vacation to Israel,” he said, grinning. “My new pacemaker got me out of all the long airport security lines.”