Darrow School athletic trainer saves basketball player's life

NEW LEBANON, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A student at Darrow School is still recovering after collapsing on the basketball court during a practice scrimmage in early October. The student, Jamison Thrower, stopped breathing twice, and if not for the athletic trainer's quick actions, he may not be alive today.

Darrow School Senior Jamison Thrower said basketball has meant everything to him over the last few years. As the team's point guard, he is always thinking about the next best move -- which is what he was doing during practice on Oct. 1, moments before collapsing.

"I'm coming down the court, I get the rebound, I'm going coast to coast down the court and I'm just remembering coach always telling me if I have the lane, always try to dunk it, so that's on my mind," said Jamison.

Jamison described going up to dunk the ball, but one of his teammates blocked it and hit him in the chest. Jamison said he immediately felt like the wind got knocked out of him and he was having trouble breathing.

"It just felt like I had shortage of breath, I couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe and then everything went black and I just collapsed right there," said Jamison.

On the ground, Jamison began seizing. Allison Pritchard is the school's athletic trainer -- she was already at the gym for the practice and ran right over to Jamison. With the help of a coach, they flipped Jamison over and Pritchard said it was clear something serious was going on.

"We rolled him onto his side because he was like choking a little bit. And then all of a sudden everything stopped," said Pritchard. "So, then I was like is he breathing? Me and the coach looked at him, I checked pulse. There was nothing."

Pritchard immediately began performing CPR. She said on the 10th chest compression, Jamison came back to them. At that point, 911 had already been called and bystanders were helping to bring the AED. But a few moments later, Jamison was not breathing again.

"And then all of a sudden again, he stopped, so there was a second time. And then I did chest compressions again," said Pritchard.

The second time, Pritchard did about six or seven chest compressions before Jamison came back. They then put the AED on Jamison, analyzed him, and determined it was not needed. Moments later, Thrower was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital -- which is where he remembered waking up.

"I was so grateful to be able to just open up my eyes, look around," said Jamison. "She saved my life, I owe it all to her. We're literally like this now."

Pritchard and Jamison even have their own handshake now. Pritchard said she knows the next few weeks of recovery will be difficult for Jamison, but she knows he can do it.

"It really is a one in a million chance of that happening and getting the result that we did," said Pritchard. "It was the scariest thing I ever saw."

Jamison just got his heart monitor off on Monday and is now awaiting test results. He's going back to the hospital next week to hopefully find out why this happened and when he can return to the court.

"There's really no answer to what happened and I guess that's, I wouldn't say the scary part, but it's a little scary because you don't know," said Jamison.

However, he does believe that this happened for a reason.

"It's like God sent me down, he had to send me down for this, and I had to learn," said Jamison. "He wanted me to learn how to be a better teammate, how to be a better person, who am I without basketball? And really I'm just on that path right now."

Pritchard hopes other students and athletic trainers can learn from this experience as well.

"It just shows how important it is to have athletic trainers at the school, to have athletic trainers at sports, to have those good connections that can make an outcome like that possible," said Pritchard.

Jamison is forever grateful for people like Pritchard and all of the other school staff that helped him to be able to still be sitting here, telling his story.

"When I'm back, all that I put into the court, all I put on the floor, that's gonna be for them," said Jamison.