CPR Saves C. Milton Basketball Player's Life After Collapse

A C. Milton Wright girls basketball player collapsed on the sidelines during a game Thursday evening, but was successfully revived by fast-acting staff and law enforcement.

Around 7:17 p.m. Thursday, the 17-year-old girl stopped breathing and was without a pulse, according to Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office.

"It was initially reported that the victim may have fallen backwards off a chair and it was believed she may have suffered a head injury," Hopkins wrote in an email to Patch.

A sheriff's deputy on detail for the game noticed the team, coach and girl's mother huddled at one end of the gym and rushed over, noting it looked the girl was having a seizure, Hopkins said.

Someone began CPR and a Maryland State Police trooper sent someone else to retrieve the Automatic External Defibrillator, or AED, and shocked the girl three times before the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company arrived. The trooper told EMS personnel he had briefly got a pulse before it again dissipated, according to a post on the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company's Facebook page.

The girl was once again shocked with the AED, medics continued CPR and transported her to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air for treatment. On the way to the hospital, the 12th grade student showed signs of a strong pulse and started to breathe on her own. By the time they arrived at Upper Chesapeake, the 17-year-old was talking and answering simple questions, the post states.

"This is a textbook example of why knowing proper CPR and the use of an AED is so very vital to survival from a sudden cardiac arrest," the post states.