HARTLAND, Wis. — Friday night’s boys’ basketball game between Arrowhead Union High School and Catholic Memorial was paused because of a medical emergency.
Craig Haase is the head coach of the Arrowhead boys’ basketball team; he said while he was coaching Friday’s game, things came to an abrupt stop as someone in the student section collapsed.
“That was frightening,” Haase said. “[We are] lucky that we have an amazing staff here at Arrowhead and our game manager, Jeff Stauss, was on it right away.”
Stauss quickly ran to the automated external defibrillator. Stauss used the AED on the student and brought him back to consciousness, according to Haase.
“It was a scary situation, but by the time the ambulance got here, he was alert and awake and was able to get safely transported to a hospital,” said Haase.
The basketball game resumed on Saturday. Abby Leisemann was the medical expert working the resumed game. She said one of the main reasons the student is OK is because of the well-trained staff at Arrowhead.
“We do a lot of practice and make sure that students and coaches, athletes know where everything is ,so when something like this does happen — and it will happen — we know how to respond appropriately,” said Leisemann.
Leisemann said not every school district has AEDs on hand and many of them don’t stay up to date on training. She said she believes this situation is a perfect example of why they should be.
“It could have been a scary situation and the huge thing about having an AED is that you need to have people that know how to use it,” said Leisemann. “So having staff trained [is important as well]. I personally love having an athletic trainer at every school because they know how to respond effectively.”