By Rick Hurd
Contra Costa Times
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — A Lafayette middle school student was recovering Tuesday after a weekend basketball game nearly turned tragic when he went into apparent cardiac arrest while running down the court.
City officials and the boy’s coach credited the presence of an automated external defibrillator with saving the 14-year-old’s life after he collapsed near midcourt 90 seconds into the second half of a CYO game at the Tice Valley Community Gym on Saturday.
“He was running down the court, and just before he got to midcourt, his knees buckled and he collapsed slowly,” the boy’s coach, John Wackowski, said Tuesday. “It looked like he was convulsing a little bit, and his breathing was really shallow and labored. I don’t think any of us really knew what we were dealing with initially, but then his eyes rolled back and his lips turned purple.”
Bystanders came forward to help, including a nurse and a retired firefighter. Both performed CPR, and Wackowski ran to get the defibrillator, located behind the front desk at the gym. The nurse applied the machine to the boy’s chest.
“It sent out a shock, and his heart went back into rhythm,” Wackowski said.
Paramedics arrived a short time later, and an ambulance took the boy to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Wackowski said.
“It’s a blur, really,” Wackowski said. “It all happened so quickly, there’s no way I could put a time frame on it. You know, you never would think that this could happen, and I figured it was so unlikely that I’d never have to worry about it. Thank goodness for that machine being there.”
Automated external defibrillators are portable electronic devices that sense automatically whether a person is in the middle of a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia and whether an electrical shock will help put the heart back into rhythm. They are on-site at several public gathering areas in Walnut Creek, including Heather Farm Park, the Lesher Center for the Arts and City¿ Hall.
“The idea behind having these defibrillators available is the thought that someday, we’ll be able to extend someone’s life until the paramedics get there,” said Wes Allnut, the program coordinator for the city of Walnut Creek. “That’s exactly what happened in this instance. We’re very thankful.”
Wackowski said he has been in touch with the family since Saturday and that the boy is home and recovering.
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©2015 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)