MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – There have been 24 cardiac arrests at Vermont schools over the past decade. Now, one survivor is advocating for all schools to have cardiac emergency response plans in place.
“He called and said, ‘Dominic’s on the ground. I don’t know what’s going on. They’re doing CPR.’ And that was all I got, and I was like, ‘Is this some kind of sick joke?’ He was like, ‘Just get here fast,’” said Jenny Smith, Dominic’s mother.
On Jan. 3, Milton High School sophomore Dominic Barcomb collapsed during a basketball game against Spaulding High School and went into cardiac arrest.
“I made one pass, my first pass of the game, and everything went blurry,” Dominic Barcomb said. “I ran to my coach, my bench, and I started falling into all my teammates and fell on the ground, right there.”
He spent a week in the hospital where they put a defibrillator in his heart in case something like this happens again.
“It’s a crazy experience to have happen to me,” he said. “I’ve been so active for so many years, and for the fact that it’s just now happening is just kind of crazy.”
Now, Barcomb is advocating at the Vermont Statehouse for cardiac emergency response plans in schools.
While more than 200 schools have AEDs or automatic external defibrillators, only 84 have response plans.
Representatives from the American Heart Association hope this year legislation requiring schools and athletic events to have these plans will become law.
“We need to protect the players, the staff and the fans in the stands. And it’s the same for schools, they need to be held reliable for that,” said Brandy Marie of the Vermont Coyotes.
These plans would establish a cardiac emergency response team and incorporate staff training and practice drills. Plans like this can mean the difference between life and death, increasing cardiac arrest survival rates by 50%.
“Had Spaulding High School not had their own emergency plan, cardiac emergency plan, I could not have him today,” Smith said.
Given a second chance at life, Barcomb is ready to get back on the court.
In the meantime, Milton will be replaying Spaulding Monday in his honor.