High school hero: a man in cardiac arrest got the shock of his life—thanks to the efforts of 17-year-old Matt Strauss - community champion

School Administrator, Oct, 2003 by Mary Newman

It was March 12, 2003, and Pittsburgh's Penn Hills High School was playing against Chartiers Valley High School in the varsity basketball finals. Matt Strauss, a 17-years-old junior, was there to cheer on his team. The tension was high, with seconds left to play and Penn Hills down by only a few points, when Matt heard a loud thud behind him. About 10 rows back, 48-year-old Martin Gannon had collapsed on the bleachers. Instinctively, Matt grabbed the AED at his feet and rushed to help. Two physicians who happened to be sitting nearby began CPR, assisted by a parent who had been trained in CPR and AED use. Matt hooked up the AED and instructed the crowd to stand back, which was probably the biggest challenge. "It was total chaos," he says.

Following the device's voice instructions, Matt pressed the shock button once. "Within three seconds, there was a pulse, and then Mr. Gannon started gurgling and coughing," he says. "When EMS arrived, he was sitting up, talking and grinning."

Resuscitation Readiness

Today, Gannon is alive and well and considers himself lucky. But it wasn't just luck that Matt was ready to resuscitate. The fact that this high school had an AED on hand at the unpredictable time of need was a result of Matt's tireless efforts during the previous year. It all began in January 2002, when Matt saw an ad for an EMT class at a community college and decided to pursue the training, taking his classes on Saturdays. Six months and 144 hours of training later, he began to volunteer for a local ambulance company, usually working Friday nights.

During this time Matt became increasingly aware of the importance of defibrillation, not only because of his new role, but also because of media coverage of the subject. "I kept seeing articles about AEDs popping up everywhere, including the Internet," he said. What brought it home was when someone collapsed at the grocery store where Matt worked. Matt performed CPR, but the EMS defibrillator arrived too late to be of any value.

By then, Matt, who also volunteers his time as a student athletic trainer, began to think about the benefits of having an AED available for school sporting events. When he approached the school administration and school board with the idea, he was rebuffed. But he persisted, and when there was a change in the school leadership, the program got the green light.

At the advice of the school's athletic trainer, Matt applied for a grant from a local hospital foundation, which supplied the school district with two AEDs. By August 2002, 12 volunteers, including teachers, coaches and students, had been trained. It became routine for coaches and athletic trainers to make sure the AEDs traveled to every game.

It was Matt's turn to carry the device on that fateful day in March. "Mr. Gannon was dead one second, and the next, we're pressing the button and he's back," Matt says. He probably would not be alive today if we weren't able to shock him so quickly. Think about it ... it could have been your mom, your grandma, the coach, a teacher--who knows? The thing is, the more you know, the more you can help."

And what about the basketball game? "We lost the playoffs," says Matt, "but I guess you could say we won at something much more important."