Soccer Coach Suffers Cardiac Arrest on Sidelines, Saved by Spectators' CPR and AED Knowledge

A boys’ U17 club soccer coach in upstate New York collapsed on the sidelines earlier this month, and quick thinking from fellow coaches and spectators saved his life from what appeared to be sudden cardiac arrest.

According to WKBW, Andrew Pihlblad had no preexisting health conditions when he collapsed in the second half of a June 4 soccer game. 

"I went from standing up, coaching and doing whatever, to just my heart stopped and I fell down," Pihlblad told ABC News. "Nothing felt weird, nothing felt strange the whole time, until it just kind of happened." 

Coach Paul Herrmann told WKBW, “Middle of the game, I look down, and I saw him face down in the turf. He just stopped breathing. I realized really quickly he is in a really bad place. That’s when I was screaming across for people to help me.” 

The school’s security cameras caught the whole incident on tape, and images of Pihlblad show him upright and coaching one moment, but lying on the ground the next.

Coaches and spectators immediately began CPR and some went inside the school to fetch the AED while an ambulance was called to the scene. The AED administered three shocks to Pihlblad before he regained consciousness. The swift response by coaches and spectators meant that less than 10 minutes passed between Pihlblad’s collapse and the ambulance carrying him away.

“I would have died without the CPR and the AED, there’s not even a question," Pihlblad said. "I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for their actions.” Pihlblad also emphasized that he wouldn’t be alive if the soccer game had not been played at a facility with an AED, acknowledging that “many other playing fields don’t have such equipment on hand.”

The spectators who jumped into action will be honored at a school board meeting this summer.