On December 27, 2017, Hana Gross’s life would be changed forever. Covering an extra shift at Pelham High School, Ms. Gross, Irvington’s athletic trainer, and a team of other helpers worked to save a boy’s life on the court when he collapsed. He collapsed a minute into the first quarter.
Blind Brook boys basketball player Jordan Schoen collapsed on the court right in the middle of a game, and things went south very quickly. Schoen went flat for about a minute and then Gross, a parent in the crowds who was a doctor, a detective and a police officer were able to unite as a team and save his life.
Schoen was immediately sent to New Rochelle Hospital and then later was transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Bronxville.
“It’s so rare in the setting of athletic training because you’re with the active, healthy population, so for something like that to happen is really, I think, rare.” Gross said. Her training and previous experience enabled her to be a hero in the situation.
Dr. Robert Pass Associate Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronxville did a 2.5 hour procedure on Jordan which involved putting a defibrillator and pacemaker in his heart. Dr. Pass said the result would have been catastrophic had Schoen not promptly received the proper medical treatment.
Hana said that her initial thoughts were that he just fainted from a lack of food intake before the afternoon game, but after he started having seizures Hana knew he was going into cardiac arrest. The boy’s father informed him that Schoen had no prior history of seizures.
