Six-year-old Emiliano Vela.






High school goalie James Hendrick.














 

Real-Life Stories

Meet three SCA survivors

Six-year-old boy saved at school

Every second matters during sudden cardiac arrest, as Corpus Christi Schools demonstrated. By making every tick of the clock count, this American school district showed exactly how seriously they take providing a safe environment for the community's youngsters.

"What I realized was if the school hadn't had the defibrillator, my son wouldn't be here, if that machine wasn't there, I would have lost him," said his mother.

"Having an AED is as important as having a fire extinguisher," said Debbie Gilchrist, Corpus Christi Schools' Coordinator of Student Health Services. "Actually, if I had to choose between the two, I would probably pick the AED."

16-year-old athlete gets a second chance

On February 27, 2008, 16-year-old James Hendrick almost died from commotio cordis and sudden cardiac arrest while playing goalie at his high school lacrosse game. He was hit in the chest with a ball which caused his heart to go into ventricular fibrillation - an irregular rhythm that stops the normal circulation of blood.

When Hendrick collapsed, his coach, Josh Covelli, quickly grabbed the school’s AED unit and hooked it up to James’ chest. At that moment, the paramedics arrived on the scene and were able to shock James’ heart back into normal rhythm.

“I watched James’ body come up off the ground and come back down,” said Covelli. “We shocked him and he cardio-converted [restoring a normal heartbeat]. He was stable at that point and his vital signs were pretty decent. He was breathing on his own.”

James made a full recovery and returned to practice on March 19.

Eric was "just playing tennis"

Eric told us, "It was a fun game of doubles against a couple of friends, not too strenuous, plenty of unforced errors as you’d expect from average tennis players. I recall checking my watch – 10:16 – and then started to feel a little light headed, like you might when you stand up too quickly. I figured it would pass, but it didn’t.

I didn’t know what was happening and thought I might pass out, so I got down on my knees. I went blank and fell forward onto my face. My friend started screaming for someone to call 911 and get a doctor. He rolled me over – my face was bloody and I was gasping for breath.

Fortunately for me there was a doctor playing just two courts over, and another in the lounge next to the courts. They rushed over to me and initially thought I had either fallen and hit my head (bloody face) or was having a seizure.

They checked for a pulse – none. I wasn’t breathing. Immediately, within about 30 seconds of me going down, these two heroes started CPR – taking turns doing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. Within a few minutes someone had retrieved the club’s AED from the front desk. It was a Powerheart AED. The docs attached the pads and fired it up, pressed the button to deliver the first shock.

I was alert by the time the paramedics arrived."

Boy Scouts Partnership
Why Do I Need AEDs?
About Defibrillation
Product Information

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     A Powerheart® AED saved six-year-old Emiliano's life

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     Eric was saved by an AED on the tennis court


Learn more about the Boy Scouts alliance with Cardiac Science (PDF)