First Aid Corps

A female student at Lancaster High School went into cardiac arrest Wednesday morning in the school. The girl collapsed right in the school’s lobby, around the time of the opening bell.

According to a spokeswoman for the district, another student got the nurse and they called 911.

The student was lucky there was also a response team already in place at the school. Fire officials tell 2 On Your Side that the girl is alive, largely because this team was so close to her.

“Thanks to their skill and our skill we were fortunate to have this young lady recover her heartbeat and breathing before she was loaded into the ambulance,” said Bob Sinclair, the first assistant chief of the Bowmansville Fire Department.

The girl fell around 7:30 a.m. Firefighters believe she is a junior or a senior. The school response team rushed to the girl and started giving her CPR.

“I can’t tell you how long it took them to get their team together and start CPR, but it was relatively quickly,” said Sinclair.

The student then regained consciousness and started talking at the school.

Firefighters say that the student didn’t go into full cardiac arrest. If she did, they say it would’ve been tough to get her back.

The student was taken to the hospital and the last we’ve been told is that she’s in intensive care.

An Evergreen High School senior owes her life to some quick-acting adults, and an automated external defibrillator in the school that got her heart beating again.

Tuesday morning, the unidentified senior collapsed in a secretary’s office. Four adults at the school immediately jumped into action.

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School nurse Debbie Fowler pulled the defibrillator from the cabinet and began CPR.

Dean of students Marshall Pendleton said the girl had no pulse, and chest compressions weren’t enough to bring it back.

“Within, I think, 13 seconds we determined that a shock was recommended, so we cleared and allowed that to proceed,” Pendleton said.

It took three shocks to bring back a good heartbeat, he said, adding that the student’s prognosis was good and she was recovering.

He said similar events had happened twice before in the school within the last two years. In each case, the student made a full recovery.

Pendleton credits the quick actions of the faculty and the ease of using an AED.

“You look at a picture, you open a bag, you put two stickers on somebody’s chest. That’s it,” he said. “The machine does the rest. Everybody would be comfortable doing that.”

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.

Sports studies student James Cory owes his life to the quick response of St John Wales volunteers and is living proof defibrillators can make all the difference.

Mr Cory collapsed on a night out at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David in Carmarthen and was treated by two St John medics stationed near by.

Volunteer Andrew King, 27, said: “When we arrived, he was in full cardiac arrest and wasn’t breathing.”

Mathew Jones, 21, a St John member for three years, attached the defibrillator to Mr Cory’s chest and he was brought back to life.

He regained consciousness in Carmarthen’s Glangwili General Hospital two days later, and is continuing his recovery at Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

The student said: “I don’t remember anything at all about what happened. I owe my life to Andy and Mathew.

“Without St John being able to respond so quickly, I wouldn’t be here today. I had no idea I was ill. I’m young, I keep fit and I never contemplated that something like this could happen to me. These volunteers are amazing and I’ll be forever grateful.”

Keith Dunn, St John Wales chief executive, said: “This highlights the need to have trained first aiders and vital equipment nearby. The earlier the defibrillator is deployed the better the chance of survival.”

Stephanie Lloyd, president of the National Union of Students in Wales, said: “James is lucky. But other students may not be unless universities and colleges around Wales heed the call to keep defibrillators on site. ”

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.”