By Fox23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — A Saint Francis employee discussed the importance of AEDs being readily accessible at schools across the state following an incident where she helped use one to save the life of a student who collapsed during a baseball game.
“It was March 13th of last year and I was going to watch both of my boys play baseball against Okemah. We’re from Kellyville,” said Brenda Nance, the Vice President of Quality at Saint Francis. “We were not that far into the game when Aaden came up to bat and he was hit by a baseball right on his chest wall. He took a couple of steps and collapsed to the ground.”
After Aaden collapsed, Nance explained that a nurse who was in the stands ran onto the field and checked Aaden’s pulse.
The nurse and Nance began administering CPR while the athletic director and baseball coach ran to grab the school’s AED.
AED stands for automated external defibrillator. It’s a portable device that’s able to deliver an electrical shock that has the ability to reset a heart’s proper rhythm.
Once the AED arrived, Nance said they placed the device on Aaden’s chest and used it to give him an electric shock. Thankfully, following the shock, Aaden’s heart restarted and he began to wake up.
Nance said being able to use the AED so soon after Aaden collapsed was what saved his life.
“This was critical because what happened to Aaden was called commotio cordis and it’s when you get a direct hit to the heart just in the wrong time of an electrical cycle. It caused him to go into a deadly rhythm and just stop his heart…[It’s] very rare. This only happens 10 to 20 times a year, according to the American Heart Association. The best way to increase your chance of survival is early CPR and early defibrillation with an AED to get the heart back in rhythm. We were able to do that very quickly. That was really because the school had invested in AEDs over a decade ago.”
Recent legislation has been passed to work toward getting AEDs installed in every school.
“This is just really close to my heart as a cardiac nurse. We have to have AEDs readily available when events like this happen, so that we can increase that chance of survival. In 2024, our legislators passed a law to help schools get AEDs and CPR training, but at that time, the HEARTS Act was not fully funded. This year, that’s going to be a huge focus for the American Heart Association is getting funding for the schools so that they’ll be able to purchase AEDs.”
Nance said the availability of AEDs is important for anyone with a child who is a student athlete or even just attending a school in the state of Oklahoma.
“As a parent of two young athletes, that’s a question that I would want to ask my school. Do you have an AED? Not only do you have an AED, do you have one in close proximity to your sports facilities? Because in some schools, the baseball field, the football field, isn’t right there on that same campus. It could be down the road a couple of miles away and you need to be able to get to that AED quickly within that first three to five minutes.”
For Aaden Dunson, the importance of accessible AEDs at schools can’t be overstated. He said anything can happen to anyone at any time.
“When they told me that I went into cardiac arrest, I just thought to myself that happened in such a short amount of time. I didn’t think it could happen to me that young and I was surprised that it was me that it happened to…Every sporting event should have one just in case someone does go into cardiac arrest again.”
Aaden said he’s been able to go back to playing baseball and doing the other things he loves. However, he now makes sure to wear a chest plate when he plays.
