Middletown High's teamwork saves a life
By BY STEPHEN SACCO
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 12/26/10
Trained staff take quick action
There might not be anything
sweeter to a 17-year-old than a free class period right before a holiday. This
was true for Kenny Tillman-Myrie on Oct. 29 until his heart stopped working and
he collapsed on the cold floor of a Middletown classroom.
Kenny's a little on the
skinny side; he's a bit shy too, but he has an athletic build developed from
his years of devotion to basketball. He also has a wining smile, the kind that
could charm just about anybody.
When Kenny walked into Scott
Cantara's classroom for a free period Oct. 29, he was laughing and joking with
his best friend, Shaquille Green. They talked about Halloween, coming up on
Sunday, and, of course, about basketball.
Defibrillators getting simpler to use
It's no accident that a
defibrillator was on hand Oct. 29 and that Middletown High School personnel
were trained to use it, says Jim Parker, senior director for health and safety
for the American Cross of Greater New York.
The American Red Cross has
been focusing its efforts on outreach and education to get automatic
defibrillators in schools and other public places and to teach people how to
use them to save lives, he said. In New York it's the law that there must be a
defibrillator at sporting events.
Parker says the good news is
that technology for these devices has rapidly improved. While chances of
responding to a life-threatening incident successfully greatly improve with
training, the new defibrillators are easier to use than in years past and most
will give you instructions so you can use them even if you aren't trained.
The machine used on Kenny at
Middletown High School automatically assessed his conditions within seconds.
Prices for the devices have
gone down significantly, too. Some people have even purchased the machine for
their home when a family member is at risk.
"I think there is a
heightened awareness about the benefits of (having a defibrillator on
hand)," Parker said. "And the science of assisting somebody (with the
device) has been constantly improved."
Steve Sacco
He and Shaquille had
distinguished themselves on the varsity team at Middletown High School.
There was some trouble for
Kenny early in life with a foster family. That was behind him. Kenny has called
his aunt Loraine Myrie "Mom" since he was five years old. Myrie took
Kenny and his sister, Tara, and adopted and raised them both.
Tara is in college at Utica.
Kenny is looking at college. He wanted to play college basketball. He wanted
that bad.
Kenny was already being
looked at by some college coaches, say Middletown coaches Jim Kelly and James
Smith. A good student, Kenny had hopes of using basketball to help pay for
college.
Life to Kenny on Oct. 29 was
looking up. But walking into Cantara's classroom is the last thing he remembers
about that day.
The next thing he remembers
is waking up blurry eyed the next day in Westchester Medical Center with his
aunt and girlfriend looking down at him, he says.
His life had changed forever
in little more than an instant. "I thought it was a dream," he said.
He only had only seconds
"(Kenny) just fell back
in his chair," said Shaquille about that day in October. "At first we
thought he was joking or just laughing too hard." He wasn't.
Kenny's heart seized up and
it wasn't pumping blood to his vital organs. He was most likely in this
condition for half a minute. Seconds longer and the result might have been
brain damage or death.
After Kenny hit the floor,
school staff acted swiftly, according to an internal timeline provided by the
school. Nurses Wendy Manis, Linda Blosser and Shelley Burr were called to the
classroom. Security monitor James "Duke" Kimble ran to get the
automatic defibrillator.
Manis listened to Kenny's
breathing. Something was very wrong. The high school's security team members —
Sam Barone, Nelson Reed, classroom teacher William Donohue and School Resource
Officer Kevin Weymer — arrived to assist.
They put the paddles of the
defibrillator on Kenny. The machine assessed his heart rhythm. He needed a shock.
Blosser pushed the button. Manis performed chess compression while Donohue
provided breathing for three cycles of CPR. The EMTs arrived and took Kenny to
the Horton campus of Orange Regional Medical Center before he was flown to
Westchester.
News spread throughout the
school. "I couldn't believe it," said Laura Brissing, Kenny's
guidance counselor. Healthy 17-year-old athletes don't go into cardiac arrest.
Do they?
What just happened?
As far as Loraine Myrie is
concerned, Kenny's being alive today is nothing short of a miracle.
The school was tremendously
supportive, she said. Assistant Principal Carl Pabon drove Myrie to Westchester
Medical Center after the incident.
Clinically, Kenny didn't die.
"Death is not a reversible diagnosis," said Dr. Mathew Pinto, a
pediatric cardiac specialist who treated Kenny when he arrived at Westchester.
But he beat the odds. An
adolescent going into cardiac arrests outside of a hospital has a 9 percent chance
of surviving, says Pinto. Inside the hospital the chances of survival increase
to just 27 percent.
Kenny not only survived, but
also suffered no brain damage. This wouldn't have been the case if the school
staff hadn't responded so quickly, Pinto said.
Kenny can't play competitive
basketball again. He can shoot a few hoops. But he can't play to win.
The doctors still can't tell
him what's wrong but they opened Kenny's chest at Westchester to install an
internal defibrillator.
Pinto says the most likely
answer is genetic but it will take some time until testing can prove this
conclusively. It's likely Kenny has some type of cardiac dysrhythmia, also
known as arrhythmia, meaning the electric activity of his heart is abnormal.
That's what the internal defibrillator
is for; to shock the heart back into a regular beat. But it's too risky to play
competitive sports when wires are attached to your heart, Pinto said. Goodbye,
basketball.
'A purpose for this young man'
Sam Barone, a past fire chief
in Middletown, has used a defibrillator before, but never on somebody so young,
he said.
Barone, like many of the
people who responded to Kenny's emergency, had the necessary training. The
American Red Cross is currently looking at awarding medals to the people involved
with the incident who received their CPR training with the Red Cross, according
to Ken Eastwood, school superintendent.
"It's all worth it when
you see Kenny walking around," Barone said.
On Dec. 14 Kenny turned 18.
It's taken him some time to digest everything that happened since Oct. 29.
Shortly before his birthday
he was sitting in the guidance office at school with Pabon, Brissing and a
newspaper reporter. Kenny says he was brought to tears over not being able to
play basketball anymore. He says this quickly, as if pulling off a bandage
rapidly so it won't hurt.
"There's a purpose for
this young man beyond basketball," said Pabon with complete confidence.
"This (incident) proves it."
Kenny steals a look at Pabon,
and then looks back at the floor. Then he looks back up, and there it is:
Kenny's winning smile, impossible to resist.
