On Wednesday night, the Cedar Springs Area Select Soccer Association (CASSA) ’07 Boys Team gathered at Life EMS Ambulance’s education auditorium in Grand Rapids to take a CPR course together to honor their 14-year-old teammate, Jeffrey Soules, who attends the, who survived a cardiac arrest during practice in October.
Jeff was running a warmup lap with his team when he started to slow down; the team runs the lap together and doesn’t leave anyone behind. The goalie dropped back to wait for Jeff but Jeff wasn’t able to keep up, and soon collapsed. The team quickly went into action; calling 911 and running to get the coach. Coach Adam Petty performed CPR on Jeff for several minutes, saving his life and drastically improving the overall outcome. An on-call firefighter arrived on the scene and administered an AED. Additional emergency services arrived on scene moments later.
Jeff was taken via ambulance to Helen Devos Children’s Hospital where he received emergency care and treatment. Jeff had a dual defibrillator/pacemaker implanted into his chest and has since miraculously been cleared to return to the soccer field and play with his teammates who ultimately saved his life.
Wednesday night, Jeff and his teammates took part a 3-hour CPR course to attain certification, compliments of Life EMS Ambulance. While Jeff had already received his CRP certification through a school swim class, he wanted to be there, together with his team.
Before the training took place, Life EMS Vice President Michael McKelvey announced that the team will receive scholarships to take a future EMT training class. McKelvey and Life EMS also honored Coach Petty for the action he took to save Jeff’s life.
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