The emergency response plan at Cadillac High School in Michigan was put to the test during a girls’ basketball game Friday night.
The Cadillac and Gaylord junior varsity teams were playing when a referee suffered a heart attack, according to the Cadillac News. The referee falling to the ground triggered an immediate response.
“Before he hit the floor, I was yelling at (athletic trainer) Brandon (Parcell),” Cadillac athletic director Fred Bryant told the Cadillac News. “As he was going, I was calling 911 and grabbing the AED from the hallway.”
“One of the referees had collapsed a little bit, seemed pretty unresponsive, wasn’t really there I guess,” Parcell said, according to the 9&10 News. “Still kinda conscious though, and then over the course of the next few minutes became unconscious.
“It was nerve-racking and I can honestly say running up to the scene I didn’t really know what to expect, but once we kind of laid him down on the ground and the reality of the situation hit, my training just clicked in. It really just goes to show my training, and it goes to every other certified athletic trainer out there who is ready to do life-saving measures at really any second, that they are working.”
The teams cleared the court while Parcell administered two shocks from the AED, stabilizing the referee.
“It was very quiet in the gym,” Bryant said. “When you’ve got just one or two people talking, and they’re talking about compressions and then you can hear the AED talking, it’s pretty eerie.”
The Cadillac News reported that the referee was talking while being transported by ambulance to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. The condition of the referee wasn’t immediately known.
