The swift action of athletic officials at Revere High School may have spared the life of a 17-year-old track athlete.
The teenage boy, a junior, collapsed in the football stadium behind Revere High, 3420 Everett Road in Bath Township, about 4 p.m. Friday.
Athletic personnel called 911, gave the teen CPR and used an automated external defibrillator (AED) on him. Paramedics rushed the teen to Akron Children’s Hospital where he was then taken by helicopter to Cleveland Clinic. He was conscious and awake Monday, undergoing testing, said Bath Township Police Chief Mike McNeely.
“You leave your children in the hands of school officials,” McNeely said. “Boy, did they step up to the job!”
The Beacon Journal isn’t naming the teen at the request of his parents and Revere school officials, who declined to comment on the incident.
Three 911 calls Friday afternoon demonstrate the swift response of the athletic personnel. In one, a man says an athlete is down and is having trouble breathing. He said the teen wasn’t conscious and was only breathing every 5 to 6 seconds. He repeatedly said the teen’s name, and offered words of encouragement.
“Come on ...” he said. “Can you hear me?”
In another call, Revere Athletic Director Bill Conley told a dispatcher that athletic personnel were performing CPR on an athlete at the high school. In the final call, a dispatcher advised Conley to clear the way for the ambulance. Conley told the other athletes to get out of the way and to move hurdles off the track. He told the dispatcher that police and paramedics had arrived.
McNeely said an athletic trainer used an AED on the teen, as did Bath Township paramedics during the ride to the hospital. He said this was the type of emergency that school and athletic officials do drills for, but hope won’t actually happen.
“It worked,” he said of the training.
McNeely said Revere has a strict rule about no vehicles on its track or field, such as during homecoming games. In this instance, though, he said the school had no problem breaking this rule to let the ambulance get through.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.