LAKE CHARLES — First-grader Bowen Johnson is back at school with an implanted heart defibrillator two weeks after a teacher saved his life.

The 7-year-old’s heart stopped during physical education April 11 at Western Heights Elementary in Lake Charles.

“He was running around outside, playing with his friends for just about two minutes before he headed to the slide,” said Ken Flue, the school’s adapted physical education teacher. “He stepped onto the first step on the plastic playground and immediately collapsed.”

Flue moved the boy into the shade. Bowen had a faint pulse and was barely breathing. Then he stopped. Flue began CPR while special-education aide April Jones ran to tell the front office to call 911.

Secretary Rhonda Cortez called on her cellphone while running to the playground, so she could relay instructions. Flue kept Bowen breathing for 10 minutes, until an ambulance arrived.

The school had also called Bowen’s parents, Steve and Eva Johnson, who arrived shortly before the ambulance.

“I was in shock. To see our son lying on the ground unconscious, he wasn’t breathing,” Eva Johnson said. “It was hard. It’s not something you see with children.”

Emergency medical technicians used a defibrillator to restart Bowen’s heart. Without Flue, he might have died before they arrived, they said.

“Everything worked just right. Everything was real surreal. When they put the paddles on him, I couldn’t watch that part,” Flue said. “He’s a very special kid, and it was definitely a God thing.”

Bowen was taken to Christus St. Patrick Hospital, then flown to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, where doctors implanted a defibrillator in his chest. It was the 21st operation for Bowen, who was diagnosed two years ago with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a condition that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick, making it difficult for the organ to pump blood — and was badly burned in a house fire in October 2008.

After the fire, doctors gave him a 2 percent chance of survival. It was three months before he had recovered enough at a local hospital to be moved to a burn center in Cincinnati.

“He had to spend 3½ months completely immobile. Then he went through all of the grafts and had to relearn how to walk, how to feed himself, to do anything on his own,” Johnson said. “He never stopped. Even when I knew it hurt him, he didn’t stop.”

Johnson attributes Bowen’s amazing recovery to his resilient spirit and fun personality. Bowen was able to return home in 2008, but must return to the burn center about twice a year for checkups and new skin grafts.

He has so much scar tissue in his left shoulder that doctors had to put the defibrillator farther away from his heart, in his right shoulder.

“He was in surgery for 5½ hours while they tried to find a place and then tested to make sure it worked,” Johnson said.

For the first responders at Western Heights, having Bowen back at school is “nothing short of a miracle.”

“I’m so glad to see him. I’m glad he’s back,” Jones said. “He’s running around like nothing ever happened.”

“Bowen is probably one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met,” Flue said. “No matter what happens he just bounces right back. He’s just amazing.”

Bowen’s entire class welcomed him back, but it was his two best friends and “special helper” classmates who missed him and worried about him the most.

“I’m happy I’m back, but now I have homework,” Bowen sighed.

Morosini, a 25-year-old midfielder for Livono, collapsed about half hour into his team’s Serie B match at Pescara [1]. Responders at the stadium tried to revive Morosini with an external defibrillator, but Dr Edoardode Blasio, a cardiologist at Pescara’s Santo Spirito hospital, told newspapers that Morosini was already dead when he arrived at the hospital. An autopsy is under way.

According to several media reports, the ambulance’s arrival on the scene was delayed by three minutes outside the stadium because a city police car was parked in front of the emergency passageway. Stadium stewards broke the car’s window, put it in neutral, and pushed it out of the way, according to the Guardian[2]. Pescara’s mayor, Luigi Albore Mascia, announced an investigation into why the ambulance was delayed. Federal police were brought in to patrol Pescara on Saturday night for fear that fans would take out their anger on the local police, municipal police commander Carlo Maggitti said.

Italy is known in the cardiology community for having an especially aggressive approach to screening athletes for potentially dangerous cardiac conditions, but this tragedy led Italian sports minister Piero Gnudi to say his ministry will investigate how athlete screening can be improved. He also plans to launch an inquiry into what medical equipment, such as external defibrillators, ought to be available at all professional sporting events. In addition to the Morosini and Muamba incidents, the sudden death among athletes is also getting a lot of public attention in Italy right now because former Italian volleyball Olympian Vigor Bovolentadied of cardiac arrest during a professional match on March 24. He was 37.

As reported by heartwire, Muamba was saved by quick action by stadium emergency personnel and a cardiologist who came out of the stands. Multiple media report that Muamba has just been discharged from the London hospital where he was treated and will continue his recovery closer to his home near Manchester. He has been implanted with an ICD and hopes to play again.

Here are the facts:

• If your love one experiences cardiac arrest and you call 911, it will on average take 8 to 12 minutes for the paramedics to arrive.  But here is the scary part – If you do not perform effective CPR immediately, within 4 to 6 minutes brain tissue starts to die and brain damage is likely.  After 10 minutes brain damage is almost certain and non reversible.  In other words, your love ones need your help to survive.  YOU CAN’T RELY ON OUTSIDE HELP BECAUSE OUTSIDE HELP MOST LIKELY WON’T ARRIVE FAST ENOUGH!

• Cardiac arrest can happen at any age.  It is not just an old person’s issue.
• It is estimated that more than 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital. In cities where defibrillation is provided within 5 to 7 minutes, the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest is as high as 49 percent.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/26/teenager-in-health-scare-after-15-year-chicken-nugget-diet/

Who knew too many chicken nuggets could leave you in desperate need of CPR at the age of 17.