LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — JCPS staff saved an 11-year-old middle school student’s life earlier this week, after his heart stopped while he was playing at school.
Noah Mattingly’s Tuesday afternoon quickly went from typical to traumatic.
The sixth grader passed out while playing outside at Kammerer Middle School.
He then stopped breathing on a bench.
“He was very pale,” Stephanie Speer, Kammerer Middle School’s R.N. said. “His lips were blue.”
Speer was one of the four Kammerer staff members who immediately started performing CPR before using an AED (automated external defibrillator) to revive him.
Speer said Noah didn’t have a pulse for two minutes.
“It was the scariest thing ever,” Shannon Pierce said. “I don’t think it would’ve worked without that machine.”
JCPS supplied AEDs to every school building last school year, in partnership with Project Adam. Each school is also required to have a plan for how to use it.
The staff’s swift action brought Noah back to life before EMS arrived. He was then taken to Norton Children’s Hospital. Doctors then discovered that Noah had an undetected medical condition that caused his heart to stop.
If the incident had happened 45 minutes later, Noah would have been on the bus riding home.
“If it hadn’t happened at school, there’s no telling what could have happened,” Christina Mattingly, Noah’s mother, said. “We could have lost him that day.”
Noah had heart surgery to help fix the birth defect on Wednesday. His family now hopes it doesn’t come back.
“If it does not then he’s home free,” Christina Mattingly said.
He now has the rest of his life ahead of him. It’s a chance he wouldn’t have without Shannon Pierce, Jack Miller, Stephanie Speer, and Brian Aulick. His parents called them his heroes.
Noah’s family said he’s recovering well. They hope to have him back in school by Tuesday, Nov. 19.
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