John Jay High School Coach, Trainer Save a Father's Life

Exactly one month after Lakeland school district officials saved a woman's life, an athletic trainer and an assistant coach helped save another person's life at Lakeland High School.

A father in his 50s was on his way to watch his daughter's junior varsity softball game when he suddenly collapsed with an apparent heart attack just outside the fence at the high school's all purpose field on Wednesday, May 1. 

It was a busy after-school day and there were multiple games going on at the school—from lacrosse and softball to a basketball game.

Lakeland field monitor MaryLu Fiori saw the man fall down and immediately sounded the alert. That's when Lakeland's athletic trainer Amanda Tiffany and John Jay High School lacrosse coach Patrick Chiappetta jumped over a fence and rushed to help the man.

He had lost consciousness. When they got there, he wasn't breathing and had no pulse. Tiffany began to administer an automated external defibrillator, or the AED, along with chest compressions until police and paramedics arrived.

"All I could think was 'get there fast," said Tiffany, who had to put her training into actual use for the first time. "Afterwards I was thinking, wow, he could have died."

Meanwhile, Yorktown police officer Larry Paniccia, the school's resource officer, had called 911 and joined in to revive the man. Mohegan Lake Volunteer Ambulance Corps personnel arrived soon after and took the man to Westchester Medical Center. He was reported to be doing well and appreciative to all those who helped.

"It was a real team effort," Lakeland High School Principal Lorrie Yurish said of everyone who rushed to help the man. 

This is the second time in a month the Lakeland Central School District was the scene of a life-saving event involving the use of an AED. 

On May 1, Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School staff member Janice Mills collapsed in sudden cardiac arrest in an eighth grade classroom where she was working as a teacher's aide. More than a dozen of staff members were involved in helping to revive the woman. They were recognized late last month at a Lakeland Board of Education meeting.

An AED is a device about the size of a laptop computer that analyzes the heart's rhythm for any abnormalities and, if necessary, directs the rescuer to deliver an electrical shock to the victim to help reestablish an effective rhythm of its own.  

School districts in New York State have been required to have AEDs on site since 2002. In addition, AEDs are available at all school interscholastic sports events throughout the state. Coaches and other district personnel including nurses are trained on their use.

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