Middle school teacher rushed to the rescue after participant in basketball league collapsed on court
- April 2010 .. By Preston Knight
WOODSTOCK -- Lying on the basketball court Sunday, Greg Long scored the greatest buzzer-beater of his life.
The April version of March Madness played out in the old gymnasium at Central High School in the span of about 10 minutes. Long, 36, of Woodstock, a participant in the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department's 35-and-older men's basketball league, went to substitute for a teammate after halftime, took three steps onto the court and instantly had a seizure, said his fiancee, Chastidy Romick.
He tried to get up, took two deep breaths and quit breathing, turning blue, she said. Players and county staff assigned to Central rushed to begin CPR.
"It felt like we were moving in slow motion," said Terri Wymer, the gym supervisor in charge.
Rushing as fast as he could at the same time, Bill Simmons, a member
of the team playing against Long's squad, retrieved one of Central's
automated electronic defibrillators from a box mounted on the wall at the school's entrance. A coach and teacher at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School, he, like other coaches, was trained to use the device in August.
The thinking, though, was that if there ever came a time to use the AED, it would not be on a healthy 36-year-old who had no known heart-related issues.
"Disbelief," Simmons said.
With the help of others, he gave Long a shock before rescue personnel arrived and took control. They transported Long to Shenandoah Memorial Hospital and he was later transferred to Winchester Medical Center. At SMH, Long was coherent but couldn't remember anything, and complained only of his knees hurting, Romick said.
He was moved from critical care into the intensive care unit in Winchester on Tuesday night, she said Wednesday morning. A Parks and Recreation news release states he now could be released toward the end of the week.
"It was definitely a joint effort on everybody's part," Wymer said.
In the aftermath of Sunday's events, two things still stand out -- how there were no signs that Long would collapse and go into cardiac arrest and the importance of having an AED handy.
"CPR wasn't bringing him back," Romick said. "Within 40 minutes [of getting shocked] he was talking to us. ... If that defibrillator was not in there and someone was not there [trained] to use it, we would be planning his funeral right now."
She said doctors are labeling Long a "walking miracle," with one telling her that even if he had gone through a physical Sunday morning, he would have passed it. The cause of his heart failure was still unknown as of Wednesday afternoon, and Romick could not immediately be reached in the evening.
Meanwhile, the reason Long is still around to determine the issue appears to be clear. At least two AEDs are in each school, and the devices have been placed in them during the last few years, Shenandoah County Public Schools Superintendent Keith Rowland said. Before this school year, each high school nurse was given a portable AED in response to a March 2009 incident in which two Strasburg baseball players collided and one had to be shocked by rescue personnel upon their arrival, he said.
At the time, an official with the Lord Fairfax EMS Council said when sudden cardiac arrest occurs outside of a hospital setting, the patient has just a 5 percent chance of survival. Those odds jump to 50-60 percent when there's an AED nearby.
The device delivers an electric shock intended to put the heart back into a regular rhythm. Simmons said it gives the user all of the commands, so he deflects credit for doing anything extraordinary to save Long's life.
He does, however, commend the county for placing the devices in schools and familiarizing employees with them.
"People in the community need to know that they are there, that they work," Simmons said. "The big key is it's been used on a 17-year-old [at Strasburg] and was successful and it's been used on a 36-year-old and been successful. ... These things are 2-for-2 in the county."
That will not be forgotten when Long and Romick, who have been together for 12 years and have a 9-year-old daughter, get married. A date has yet to be set.
"Now," Romick said, "I think it's going to be a little sooner."
