Spencer Davis, a 16-year-old football player, suffered cardiac arrest during practice after being struck in the chest. Quick action by coaches who performed CPR and used an AED saved his life.
Thanks to quick and effective CPR with a defibrillator, coaches were able to save Spencer Davis' life. Now the 16-year-old wants to educate others about its importance. As Spencer Davis, 16, returned a punt as part of a special teams play during practice in September 2024, another player crashed into him. Coach Rodney Chism heard the hit and saw Spencer crumple as if he “had the wind knocked out of him.” Soon, Chism could tell Spencer experienced a serious injury.
For about a month after his cardiac arrest, Spencer Davis, 16, needed to wear a Zoll Life Vest, an external defibrillator. “His hands were clenched. His body was clenched, and he appeared to be unconscious,” Chism, a football coach at Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School in Pennsylvania, tells TODAY.com. “I began to call … his name, ‘Spencer. Spencer. Spencer,’ and grab one of his hands to see if it would unclench. At which point it did not.” As Spencer’s lips turned blue, Chism and another coach tore off Spencer’s helmet and pads and started CPR. Head football coach and athletic director Homer DeLattra called for the trainer to get an automated external defibrillator, or AED, to the field immediately. The quick action from the athletic staff likely “saved his life,” mom Jennifer Davis says., tells TODAY.com. “On the ambulance ride over he was conscious. He still didn’t know what was going on, but he was screaming in pain.” Spencer has played on both the offensive and defensive lines on his high school football team. During practice on September 8, 2024, he and his teammates were learning how to cover another team’s punt when he was hit. His only memories from that day are what others have told him. His mom, though, was walking near the field as he practiced. As Davis neared the field she saw a player lying on the ground. “Kids get hurt in football all the time. I couldn’t see who it was,” she says. “I was about halfway down and the head coach came over and he was like, ‘Jenny you need to go over there, that’s Spence.’” She learned that her son “took a hit to the chest” as she saw several football coaches taking turns performing compressions on her son. “I got up to his head and I was like, ‘Spence, I’m here. Hang on buddy,’” Davis recalls. “He started breathing on his own and within seconds he went back into cardiac arrest. His eyes rolled behind his head. His lips turned a color of grayish blue that I’ll never forget.” That’s when the athletic trainer arrived with the AED and the coaches put it on Spencer’s chest and it showed that he had a shockable rhythm. “That walked us through it from that point,” Chism says. “We were able to find a heartbeat as we were performing compressions. I thought I was finding a pulse. But the AED clearly identified that and told us to stop CPR.” Then the machine proceeded to shock Spencer to revive him. Chism had experience performing CPR before and the team regularly reviews its emergency action plan, which helps them understand how to handle something like a cardiac arrest. As part of that they annually train in using the Zoll AED. Still, he was unnerved by the experience. “It’s very very physically demanding and mentally draining,” he says. “Thank God we had a positive outcome.” By the time the ambulance arrived, Spencer was awake. While his mom worried about his screaming, she was glad that “he was with us.” “When we got to the hospital, they took him into a room and we could still hear him screaming and at one point (a doctor) yelled out, ‘He’s wiggling his toes. It’s a good sign,’” Davis says. “They said everything they had done tests (for) … were coming back normal and everything looked like classic signs of commotio cordis.” Commotio cordis happens when a “sudden blunt impact to the chest” causes cardiac arrest, explains Dr. George Jabbour, one of the cardiologists who treated Spencer. It’s considered “rare but it’s a very serious condition.” Buffalo Bills safetyexperienced cardiac arrest after commotio cordis in January 2023 and has since recovered and returned to football, according to past Doctors explained to the Davis family that the diagnosis was one of exclusion, so they wanted to run more tests on Spencer to make sure he didn’t have an underlying structural problem with his heart or an unknown heart condition. “He kept asking me, ‘Mom, what happened?’” she says. “He was like ‘I love you. I’m sorry I don’t know what happened.’” Spencer Davis' parents knew he felt better after his cardiac arrest when he asked for his phone so he could set his fantasy football roster for the weekend. (Courtesy Jen Davis) Spencer's ribs were broken from CPR, which likely caused his agonizing pain. But he also aspirated while being revived and doctors transferred him to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh where he could be monitored by pediatric specialists to help him fully heal. He needed high-flow oxygen to help him as his lungs recovered
CPR AED Cardiac Arrest Commotio Cordis Football High School Sports
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