Fairly early in the day, a healthy 5th grader (no history of chronic illness or recent illness), collapsed during PE. The PE teachers called for the school nurse, Wendy, and when Wendy arrived moments later, the student was having agonal respirations and had a thready pulse. Within a minute or two, he stopped breathing and was pulseless. Wendy and the PE teacher (who is a First Responder and trained in CPR), immediately initiated CPR. 911 and the parentwerecalled. After 5 rounds ofCPR,the student's pulse and respirations returned.
His mother arrived at the school as EMS was about to transport to the hospital and she was able to go with him. Wendy also went to the ED to support the mother and be of any assistance, which turned out to be very fortunate. The ED physician had gotten the story that it started with a seizure, which it had not. Wendy was able to provide accurate details of what happened and this assisted in the medical investigation as to what happened. A few hours later, the student becameresponsivebut combative.
He was transferred to the pediatric floor and they continued to run tests to try to determine a differential diagnosis. The doctor actually called Wendy to get a better picture of what happened.This young man was still agitated, not neurologically appropriate, but he had started to recognize and respond to his mother.
The good news is the school responded in a fantastic manner and everyone followed procedure to a tee. The student spent several days in our Children's Hospital and went home on a cardiac monitor for 30 days. He is back in school and doing well!
Note: This is Wendy's 2nd DAISY Award!