Bystanders use defibrillator to help save boy in cardiac arrest

Bystanders helped revivea 15-year-old who collapsedwhile playing futsal at Sir Robert Borden High School on Greenbank Road Saturday.

An automated external defibrillator stationed at the school was used, paramedics wrotein a news release issued Monday.

The boywas playing in a futsaltournament when he collapsed, paramedics said. Futsal is a version of indoor soccer played with a slightly smaller ball.

A cardiologist who was there started CPR while others retrieved the school's defibrillator. They then gave the teen a single shock before paramedics arrived.

Paramedics continued resuscitation and gave the boymore shocks before his pulse returned, paramedics wrote.

Serious but stable condition

The patient regained consciousness en route to a local hospital.

He is currently at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in serious but stable condition.

"Without the actions of the bystanders, the outcome might have been quite different," paramedics wrote. "This event reminds us again of the importance of bystander CPR and the early application of [a defibrillator]."

Paramedics said the boyis the fifth personin Ottawa revived withthe help of apublic access defibrillator so far this year.