For eight to 10 minutes recently, 11-year-old Caden Cherry did not have a heartbeat due to cardiac arrest.
But thanks to life-saving teamwork by some Creekland Middle School officials, Caden is alive and well, Channel 2 Action News reported.
“I heard noise on the floor. I turned and saw Caden there on the floor,” coach Keith Fountain told Channel 2 about the incident in the Cherokee County school gymnasium in September. “Right then, I noticed something seriously wrong.”
Fountain got a teacher to call 911 and got a school nurse to work next to him. They used a defibrillator and administered CPR to Cherry, a sixth-grader.
“Everything went to plan step by step, like crisis training we’ve had here,” Fountain said. “It was perfect. It saved his life.”
Dr. Deborah Wiseman, the school’s principal, also credited the schools’ emergency training for saving Cherry.
“Only God knows how grateful I am,” she said.
The school nurse, Chrissa Hofstetter, who worked with the others, recalled that Cherry had no pulse and that she did chest compressions and breathing for him in between shocks from the defibrillator until emergency workers arrived.
And now, Cherry and others around the school are wearing commemorative shirts with the hashtag #CadenStrong.
“I’ll never forget it,” Fountain said. “It will be with me for the rest of my life.”
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