A Columbus High School staff member is in stable condition at Baptist Memorial Hospital- Golden Triangle after collapsing Monday morning around 9:30 a.m. in the school gymnasium.
Janet Lewis, public information officer for the Columbus Municipal School District, said the staff member, did not release the staff member”s name, but hospital officials said Gary Griffin, a coach at the school, was critical care unit at the hospital.
Griffin was talking with Chief Resource Officer Jimmy Bonner, Principal Craig Shannon and another administrator when he collapsed. Several students were present, but they were removed from the scene immediately.
Bonner called 911 while school nurse Shonenn Fant used an Automatic External Defibrillator that was on the wall in the gym. Lewis said the school district has had an AED device in every building since 2008.
“You hope you never have to use it, but it”s there to save lives, and it definitely did that yesterday,” Lewis said.
Fant, like all six nurses in the school district, is a certified CPR and AED instructor. She joined the Columbus High School staff in January after working since 1999 as a school nurse at West Lowndes elementary, middle, and high schools.
Lewis said some have called Fant a lifesaver, but the nurse has downplayed her role.
“I was just doing my job,” Fant said Tuesday morning. “The training kicked in and I did what needed to be done. I”m glad I was there, and I”m glad we had our AEDs, because that”s what really saved his life.”
Fant said it was the first time she”s had to use the AED in an emergency situation.
“I guess the training took over, because I felt a calm come over me,” she said. “I didn”t feel shaky until after. That”s when I got kind of emotional.”
Last Wednesday, schools across the district celebrated National School Nurse Day. National Nurse Week is held annually in May.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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