Sudden death of Michael Jones
Gwinnett County teen Michael Jones passed away on the morning of Saturday, July 29th, 2017 on a soccer field in Duluth, GA. Jones was reportedly playing in a scrimmage game with his recreational soccer team when he suddenly collapsed due to cardiac arrest.
At least one coach from the Atlanta Fire United Club, the club that organized the game Jones was playing in, apparently attempted CPR to resuscitate Jones. An ambulance arrived, but it’s not clear from media reports when Jones was pronounced dead.
CPR can help, but far more effective in saving the lives of teens who collapse during recreation sports is the use of an AED. Some states require that AEDs be present during recreational sporting events. The Jones’ family should be asking: was there an automated external defibrillator (AED) available when Michael collapsed, and if not, why?
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An AED could have saved Michael Jones’ life
AEDs save the lives of people undergoing a cardiac arrest by shocking the heart back into a normal pulmonary rhythm. If used within three minutes of the onset of the cardiac arrest, the survival rate can be as high as 90%.
As a personal injury law firm that specializes in cases involving AEDs and sudden cardiac arrest, we often ask in these situations: why wasn’t an AED present? And if an AED was present, what wasn’t it used on Michael Jones?
Student athletes suddenly collapsing while in practice, or a game, or in scrimmage is becoming increasingly common place throughout the country. Not all students who experience it die; many are saved by the use of AEDs.
Jones was just about to begin his junior year of high school when we died. He was a member of Atlanta Fire United Soccer Club, self-described on the club’s website as the largest non-profit soccer club in the state of Georgia. Atlanta United Fire offers soccer programs to more than 3,760 children and more than 200 adults annually.
For a recreational soccer club of that size, it would be a stunning revelation if it turns out that the organization did not provide portable AEDs to their coaches and players, on site, on the sidelines of the fields. AEDs cost only about $1,000, and have been scientifically proven to save the lives of children, teens, and adults who experience sudden cardiac arrest.
The family of Gwinnett County teen Michael Jones deserves to know why an AED was not available to save the life of the promising young high schooler. That may only be discovered if and when the family hires a personal injury law firm to investigate the incident.
Craig Goldenfarb, Esq. has been handling cases involving sudden cardiac arrest and AEDs for twenty years, which is a highly specialized area of law.
