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Jun 22, 2009 10:56 pm US/Central
Quick Thinking, AED Saves Wayzata Athlete's Life
WAYZATA, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Ted Okerstrom was participating in Wayzata High School's football summer program called Trojan Power when he collapsed and his heart stopped.
CBS
Compared to Monday's practice under the hot sun, last Tuesday's was easy for football players in the Trojan Power program at Wayzata High School. The weather was cool, they lifted a few weights and they did some light conditioning.
Then something went wrong, and a lot of things went right. Coach Matt Lombardi remembers seeing one of his players, Ted Okerstrom, fall.
"Teddy went down," he said. "He just fell, he was down. I went and saw him, and about in 3 seconds I looked down at Teddy and he went from quick breaths to no breaths."
Lombardi sent word to the school's athletic office. Dee Schrader is the secretary, but she's also an EMT. She grabbed one of the school's AEDs -- automated external defibrillators -- and hustled to the field. She handed it off to one of the boys.
"'Take this AED and get it down to R.J. and the student who's down.' He grabbed it and ran, and you probably have heard, little did I know, I handed it to the fastest runner at Wayzata High School," said Schrader.
Meanwhile Ted's coach was doing CPR and giving him the pep talk of his life.
"'We're going to make it, we got people coming, let's go, let's keep fighting, let's keep fighting,' Just very much coaching-type stuff," recalled Lombardi.
Assistant football coach Ryan "R.J." Johnson got involved, too. He's been a volunteer firefighter for many years.
"I got the AED opened up and on him," he said. "And basically once we turned that AED on, we listened to that and let it run the show."
"It will tell you exactly what you need to do," said Schrader. "And that's exactly what we did."
When she pushed the on button on the defibrillator, its electronic voice started giving instructions: Plug in the cable, stay calm, check responsiveness, call for help.
"(It) told us when we needed to shock, which we did, and it worked perfectly," recalled Schrader.
Lombardi, Schrader and Johnson think every school should have an AED on hand. However, Minnesota schools aren't required to have them.
Ted now has an internal defibrillator in his chest. It's there in case his heart stops beating again. It will have to be replaced every 6 years or so.
The AED saved Ted, and he knows it.
"It can save your life," he said. "It's a great machine, tells the doctors a lot what happened."
Ted's playing days are over, at least until doctors' figure out why his heart stopped.
"Plan on helping the coaches out a little bit, I want to stay involved with Wayzata football, because it's a big part of my life," he said, starting to tear up.
For a teen who loves football, finding out you can't play anymore is hard news to take.
Paula Engelking, Producer
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(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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