Collapsed Teen Saved By Wrestling Coach At St. Edward High

LAKEWOOD, OH — When one of his student-athletes collapsed, St. Edward High wrestling coach John Heffernan thought the teen was having a seizure. He ordered everyone out of the workout room, asked another coach to call 911 and monitored the 15-year-old.

It quickly became clear this was no seizure. Laurenzo Williams needed CPR and he needed to be shocked by an automated external defibrillator (AED). After using the AED, Heffernan and another coach continued to do CPR for about two minutes before paramedics arrived.

Heffernan told Patch the entire incident "shook" him up. Despite working as a firefighter and EMT, the longtime St. Ed's coach had never been forced to save someone he knew. It was a different, frantic feeling.

The 10 minutes Laurenzo spent under the care of Heffernan undoubtedly saved his life and preserved his mind, Dr. Elizabeth Saarel, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, told Patch.

"Nearly 90 percent of people that go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital will die," Saarel said. "The reason Laurenzo did well is because his coach knew CPR and had an AED readily available. Without that, he may not have survived."

Even those that survive cardiac arrest may suffer long-term strain on their mental capacities. When the heart struggles to pump blood, it starves the brain of oxygen, killing precious cells and permanently changing a person's mind. That's why Heffernan's CPR was so crucial.

Laurenzo went from the care of Heffernan to the capable hands of Saarel. She discovered the 15-year-old had thickened heart muscles, which caused his heart to overgrow. The excess muscle led to overpumping by the heart, which created damaging scar tissue near the left ventricle.

The scar tissue caused an arrhythmia in Laurenzo, which eventually led to cardiac arrest in the St. Ed's workout room. The condition is relatively common among young people in the U.S., with one out of every 500 people afflicted.

To offer Laurenzo a normal life, doctors performed surgery and installed a monitoring device on his heart. The instrument will look for arrhythmias, while medical professionals will also use echo cardiograms to explore his heart's thickness.

In time, the 15-year-old will be able to return to athletics. Will he be able to go back to the strenuous world of wrestling? That isn't clear. Saarel said the severity of the heart scarring will need to be examined before decisions are made.

While he may lose the ability to wrestle, he'll continue to live an almost entirely ordinary life. "He'll be fine," Saarel said. "He'll be OK. He'll be normal. He's a very lucky boy."

For his part, Laurenzo has no memory of collapsing. He remembers working out and he remembers waking up in the hospital.

"I'd like to really thank those guys and everybody that put their hands on Laurenzo, to have Laurenzo sitting here with me today, truly blessed with that,” Anthony Williams, Laurenzo's father, told Fox 8.

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Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch