Life Saving Team

Life Saving TeamLife Svae

 

On September 2nd, 2021, an ASD maintenance crew was at South Anchorage High School to clear trails on the property when crewmember Jeff Sieber began to feel light-headed. As he approached co-workers Nathan Bankston and Pete Rivera, he lost consciousness and fell in the parking lot. Sieber experienced cardiac arrest; his heart stopped, and he quit breathing.

 

Bankston and Rivera responded by beginning chest compressions.

 

South High School Counselor Tor Christopherson arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and immediately notified high school security and administration, including South High Administrative Assistant Michelle Valentine and School Nurse Susie Whited.

 

Whited ran out of the building with a medical kit and Valentine followed with the Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). In the meantime, all members of the South High security team and Student Services Principal Rick Stone arrived on the scene.

 

South Security member John Lewis took over CPR from Rivera and Bankston, who had been performing CPR for almost five minutes. Soon thereafter, Whited used the AED to deliver a shock to attempt to restart Sieber’s heart. At the same time, South Security members Jamaal Siah and Kenneth Colley cleared the area, controlled traffic, and helped EMTs to the scene.

 

Stone provided communications coordination throughout the event and made decisions on how to best direct resources to respond to the emergency.

 

In a review of the incident, Sieber was deceased for approximately 8 minutes before he was revived with a combination of CPR and the use of the AED. Without the immediate actions and coordinated efforts of this Life Saving Team, Sieber would not be alive.