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TOWN OF MERTON — A male student from Hartland Arrowhead collapsed at 8:15 p.m. Friday during the Warhawks’ boys basketball game against Catholic Memorial.
Arrowhead game manager Jeff Staus hurried into the stands with an automated external defibrillator (AED). Onsite medical personnel then used the machine on the young man, and at 8:45 p.m., he left Arrowhead High School upright on a stretcher and was transported to a local hospital.
According to several witnesses, the student was alert and coherent as he left AHS.
“The great thing is that the kid is OK,” said Staus, who is also Arrowhead’s boys soccer coach. “But the whole NFL thing (with Damar Hamlin) goes through your mind.”
The incident took place with 6 minutes, 38 seconds left in an important Classic 8 Conference game with Arrowhead holding a 56-54 lead. The game was eventually postponed and the teams hope to resume play today at 11 a.m.
“There’s no way we were going to put the kids back out onto the floor,” Catholic Memorial athletic director Matt Bergan said. “The coaches were emotional. The kids were emotional.
“Credit to the Arrowhead game management staff and athletic trainers for getting up there. And then doctors from throughout the community went up there. It was pure chaos, but they handled it about as well as they could.”
The Arrowhead student section is in the northeast corner of the gym. And shortly after the student collapsed, the students were all ushered into the adjacent cafeteria.
At 8:25 p.m., both teams were sent to their locker rooms, and shortly thereafter, the game was postponed.
Last month, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field after making a tackle during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Medical professionals administered CPR and used an automated external defibrillator to help save Hamlin’s life.
With that incident still fresh in the minds of many, players and coaches from both Arrowhead and Catholic Memorial were shaken after seeing what happened.