Drew’s road to recovery:

• SUNDAY: Drew Brantley fights for life after his heart stops beating during gym class at Western High School.

• TODAY: Relief comes in small doses for the Brantleys in the days following their son’s cardiac arrest.

• TUESDAY: Brantley owes his life to fast actions by Western’s staff and an automatic external defibrillator.



“Today is the best day that I’ve had since last Wednesday. I think I’ve only cried once today.”

Thursday, Feb. 18

Drew Brantley’s parents, Angie and Ron, stayed in his room all night after he was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis on Feb. 17.

Brantley suffered cardiac arrest while playing basketball at school on Feb. 17. He had short-term memory loss due to the three-to-four-minute span during which he collapsed and his heart wasn’t beating properly. Blood didn’t circulate to his head until CPR began, and even that only helped move the blood a little. So it was hard for him to remember not just what had happened during the incident the day before, but even what happened just a few minutes ago.

Ron recalled that his son would ask “’Dad, how did I get down here?’ and then 30 seconds later he’d say ‘how did I get down here?’”

That went on throughout the night.

“I remember waking up in the hospital bed with my parents around me, that’s the first thing I remember,” Brantley said. “I remember talking to them a little bit, but I don’t remember much.

“I couldn’t tell you anything about the conversations, I just know that they were there.”

It was an exhausting time for Ron and Angie.

“I dozed off and on Wednesday night in his room,” Angie said. “I know two hours is an exaggeration of the sleep that I got for the next two nights. I slept in his room Wednesday and Thursday. Both of us did, slept very little. My brain had so much going on, it would not shut down.”

Brantley was awake but it wasn’t much of a relief yet to his parents.

“Probably in all honesty, the first time we really, really felt better was 10 or 11 the next morning,” Ron said. “That’s when he could really talk to us for a short period of time. There was no memory at that time, but at least he could carry on a conversation.”

With a 17-year-old son in the hospital after his heart stopped beating the day before, relief came in small doses. At school, Brantley had been revived by an automatic external defibrillator. CPR and chest compressions weren’t enough to get his heart moving again. He needed the shock.

That was how close he came to death. The Brantleys first heard that from a doctor there early Thursday.

“He immediately looked at us and said ‘I’m not saying this to upset you, and I know it will, but there’s no doubt in any of our minds, Drew would have died without these units.’

“It’s not uncommon for them to see this, but it’s uncommon for a young athlete to live through it.”

Tracy Davis is a nurse in the pediatric critical care unit at Methodist. She was on duty when the call came that Brantley was on his way via LifeLine helicopter from Howard Regional Health System. She was braced for the worst.

“When you hear a diagnosis like that, you’re devastated because you think, ‘Wow, it’s not going to go well.’” she said. “The only thing that can make a difference is a defibrillator to stop those fibrillations. CPR is wonderful. Until someone gets the AED, CPR is essential to continue circulating what oxygenating blood there is. But it’s not going to stop a fibrillating heart.”

She explained that fibrillations occur when the heart stops beating regularly and starts “quivering.” Blood doesn’t flow to the brain, or anywhere else.

“By the grace of God, his school had [AED units],” Davis said. “What is unusual about that is his school had that, because not every one does.

“There’s no question, it is not an overstatement, it’s not an over-dramatic statement to say, that is what saved his life.”

It’s a lot to digest when you’ve been up all night at your son’s bedside, yet instantly Ron and Angie wanted to get the word out. They were thankful that Western had AED units available at the school, and they hoped every school would be so prepared. Ron recalled talking to a nurse at Methodist about it.

“I said hopefully we can talk to some schools in the area, and hopefully make a small difference about people finding theirs, or putting them in a better spot, or to buy them,” he said. “Immediately Thursday me and my wife were talking about it.”

Talking was on Brantley’s mind too, in a different way. Visitors came quickly and continued during his stay. It was a relief.

“That was a huge lift,” Brantley said. “When they came into my room at first, it was cool that they were there, but it was a lot cooler when I could get out of my bed and go to the waiting room. That just helped me more than anything.

“It seemed normal when I was down there talking to them, carrying conversations, even though I wasn’t 100 percent. It kind of took me away from what happened, which helped a lot.”

Cooped up in a hospital, monitored and checked on, any slice of normal was a lift.

“Damon Reel, he came into my room and we played PlayStation and talked for an hour or two hours,” Brantley said. “That made it feel like it was a night at one of our houses.”

Back home, news filtered through the Western community that Brantley was recovering.

“I think the greatest thing was the very next day when Rick Fields sent me a picture of him smiling, sitting up in his bed,” said Western nurse Brenda Strunk, who had arrived quickly after Brantley collapsed and had started using the AED unit on him before paramedics arrived. “I could not believe it. What a huge change in 24 hours. What an awesome thing to see.”

Monday, Feb. 22

As Brantley’s situation remained stable in the days after he was admitted to Methodist, the medical staff there prepared to insert a pacemaker/defibrillator device into his chest. The device can continuously monitor Brantley’s heart and deliver the appropriate shock if it begins fibrillating again.

The surgery was performed Monday and went well enough that Brantley was released from Methodist the next day. With that, Brantley and his parents, who stayed throughout the ordeal in a hotel attached to the hospital, went home.

Wednesday, Feb. 24

Having their son home — sleeping in his own bed, in his own room — helped bring some ease to the Brantleys’ restless minds, but not much. After all, they knew the road ahead would be a difficult one.

“Today is the best day I’ve had since last Wednesday,” Angie said the day after they got home. “I think I’ve only cried once today. Yesterday was very emotional bringing him home, and today was a lot easier. I haven’t left him today. I don’t plan on going back to work on a full-time basis until he’s back in school. I plan on Ron or I being with him, one or the other, for the next 10 days or so.”