Quick action by Jeffersonville school workers helps student survive cardiac arrest

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- A southern Indiana middle schooler is alive thanks to quick thinking and CPR from school staff after his heart suddenly stopped in the hallway.

Last Wednesday morning, eighth grader Brendan Sullivan was walking to class at Parkview Middle School when he collapsed. The school resource officer found him on the ground. Brendan wasn’t breathing and had no pulse.

“The officer literally watched me drop dead,” Brendan said.

Staff rushed to help. The gym teacher, school nurse and the resource officer all took turns performing CPR until first responders arrived.

“They saved his life,” Brendan’s father, Steve Sullivan, said.

Within minutes, nearly a dozen Jeffersonville police officers arrived with additional medical supplies. Finally, Brendan had a pulse again.

“If they didn’t know CPR, who knows where I’d be sitting right now,” Brendan said.

According to a release, six minutes after his collapse, Brendan was in an ambulance.

“When I woke up here with a tube and everything, I thought I was waking up for school or something,” he said from his hospital room at Norton Children’s Hospital.

Doctors later determined the cardiac arrest was triggered by a rare complication of Brendan’s asthma.

“Brendan experienced a rare but potential complication of asthma where essentially one of his lungs ruptured due to the pressure inside it,” said Dr. Calhoun, a pediatric intensive care doctor at Norton Children’s. “Although the worst possible thing happened, someone was there who knew what they were doing, who gave that high-quality CPR that was needed to give him a chance to recover.”

Steve Sullivan said he often thinks about what might have happened if his son had stayed home that morning.

“You’re going to school every day from now on,” he told Brendan.

With gratitude so big that any gift feels too small, Steve Sullivan said he wishes he could repay the school staff.

“We don’t have a lot of money or nothing but I’d like to send them a steak dinner,” he said.

Now, Brendan says he has a new outlook on life.

“We just take things for granted too much,” he said.

Doctors at Norton Children’s Hospital expect him to make a full recovery.

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