“I heard banging on the door. This was no knock. The student was just smashing the door,” Brian recalls. “It wasn’t normal. I was instantly on edge.” Brian Dorn opened the door to his office to find a cross-country student runner screaming for him to help someone having a seizure.
He had just returned to his office to retrieve a phone number. On a normal day, the office would be empty while Brian and his fellow athletic trainers at Warren Hills Regional High School travel from field to field across an expansive campus treating injuries during afterschool practice and competitions.
A fluid situation
Brian jumped in his utility vehicle. As he approached the fallen student, he could see Coach Katie Moritz performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) compressions on freshman runner Alyssa Lynch. Realizing this wasn’t a seizure, he yelled for Coach Zach Fisher to call 911 as he grabbed the ZOLL Powerheart® G3 automated external defibrillator (AED) he keeps in a waterproof case in his vehicle.
Meanwhile, the cross-country team captains shepherded student athletes to another field to give Alyssa some privacy. “Her teammates were a little stunned,” Brian recalls.
By the time the ambulance got there, Alyssa was completely coherent. Still, we were still a little bit on edge. It was quite a scary situation.
— Brian Dorn, Athletic trainer and SCA rescuer
Alyssa didn’t have a pulse and was experiencing agonal breathing. “I was able to quickly cut her shirt and apply the pads,” Brian recalls. The ZOLL AED analyzed her heart and within seconds advised and delivered a shock. Brian continued CPR until he noticed Alyssa opening her eyes.
“I felt for a pulse, and I realized that she was back, so I stopped performing CPR. I rolled her over into the recovery position and she started talking. It was pretty crazy!” Brian explains. “I was feeling hopeful that she only needed one shock.”
Within minutes, Alyssa was talking. “By the time the ambulance got there, she was completely coherent. Still, we were on edge. It was quite a scary situation,” Brian recalls.
Preparation pays off
When responding to sudden cardiac arrest, every second matters. “That was the first time I ever had to do CPR on anyone, let alone one of my students,” explains Brian. Thankfully he was in close proximity with an AED that offers step-by-step guidance when Alyssa collapsed, and the Warren Hills Cross-country running coaches knew to quickly begin CPR.
Alyssa was med flighted to a local hospital. Eventually doctors identified a previously undetected congenital heart defect. Following surgery and rehabilitation, she was back running. “It all worked out in the end, you know. She’s still running on the track team and doing well,” explains Brian.