SMETHPORT – Saturday, Jan. 14, is a date that Melissa O’Brien
will long remember.ðThat is the day the athletic trainer saved a
young athlete’s life.
O’Brien, who is the athletic trainer at Smethport Area
Junior-Senior High School, where she works with all sports offered
by the district, attended a wrestling tournament at Franklinville
(N.Y.) Central High School, her alma mater – she is a 1992 graduate
– on that day.
“Suddenly, there was a commotion up in the balcony above the gym
where the spectators were and they yelled for help,” O’Brien
said.
She ran upstairs and found one of the wrestlers from the Perry
(N.Y.) Central High School team sitting on a bench.ðHe had finished
his second match of the day about 40 minutes earlier.ð “When I got
there,” she said, “he was conscious, but unresponsive, but then he
collapsed into unconsciousness.”
Bill Weigle, a high school social studies teacher and athletic
director at Franklinville, retrieved an automatic external
defibrillator, a portable device used to evaluate the heart rhythm
of a victim of sudden cardiac arrest, and under New York state law
must be available at every sporting venue at every high school.ðAt
Franklinville, the AED was just across the hall.
As a CPR instructor, O’Brien is trained to use an AED, and in
less than two minutes, she had attached the patches to the young
wrestler. Unlike the older AED’s which used paddles, the latest
models use patches to conduct current to the patient’s heart.
After analyzing the patient’s heart rhythm, an automatic voice
directs the operator whether or not to activate, or press the
defribrillator button.
Meanwhile, a person was using CPR compressions to assist the
wrestler.
When the computerized AED indicated that a shock was
appropriate, the device’s automated voice said, “Shock
Advised.ðStay Away From the Patient.”
O’Brien then directed the spectator to stop the compressions and
move away from the boy.
“I pushed the button which sent an electric current into the
heart in order to restimulate it, and that saved his life. He
became responsive.”
Later, a doctor saidðthat CPR, by itself, would not have revived
him.
Everyone who had gathered around the victim had to move back
before O’Brien activated the defibrillator button.ðShe said, “Once
the button is depressed, the electric current goes through the
patches and into the person.ðIf you’re touching the patient, you
could also receive a shock.”
The wrestler was taken to the hospital in Springville, N.Y., and
was later transferred to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester,
where he underwent pulmonary artery bypass surgery on Jan. 19.
Doctors disclosed that the boy’s medicalðproblem was caused by a
birth defect – an arteryð was on the wrong side ofðhis heart.
“This was the firstðsign or symptom he ever had,” O’Brien
said.
The wrestler is expected to recover completely.
Looking back on this, her first experienceðusing an AED on an
actual patient, O’Brien shared someðrecommendationsðfor people who
might have to use anðAED in the future.ð”For one thing, only one
person should be designated to call 911, otherwise, too many people
calling on their cell phones could jam the switchboard.
“Second, with so many people around the victim can make it noisy
to hear the AED’s automated voice directions.
“If you’re not immediately involved in the situation, please
clear the area so medical personnel can do their jobs,” O’Brien
advised.ð
O’Brien, who holds degrees in sport sciences and human
performance and exercise from Elmira College and Frostburg State
University, and works at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital’s physical
therapy clinic in Smethport, is now in her third year as athletic
trainer at Smethport Area Junior-Senior High School.
She noted the Smethport district has two AEDs, which were
purchased with state grants in 2001.ðShe said, “The elementary and
high schools each have one, and they can be used for gym classes,
sports events and every day student activities.”
