First Aid Corps

A seventh-grade Azle boy is in good condition less than 24 hours after he collapsed and stopped breathing during a junior high football game Tuesday evening at Azle Junior High School.

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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.”

Last Wednesday, Ali Askari was dead for about 15-minutes.

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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.

Last Friday night was the first game of the season for the American Falls Beavers. The team won, and wide receiver 17-year-old Ross Palmer was even in a featured picture in the sports section of the Idaho State Journal.

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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.

Crowds watched as Gabriel Tumelty collapsed during a senior Gaelic football match between Burren and Longstone at Pairc Esler in Newry on Sunday.

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 stepped up to home plate and hit a single. When the next player came up to bat, Van Cleve stepped off first base, ready to run to second. Instead, he collapsed.

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.”