Speaking
of Sports 

by
Bernie Fratto

 
Teamwork of the
Highest Order

March 22, 2011

Great athletes know that sharp instincts and quick reaction comprise the cornerstone of peak performance.

For Novi’s Brett Kuhn, this premise became a focal point in his young life on November 5, 2010.

Kuhn, an All-State track star at Novi HS, is currently attending Central Michigan University and competes on their Track & Field team. After a routine Friday afternoon practice last fall, he headed out to hang with his buddies prior to the Central/Western football game that evening.

Although he’d commented to his father Keith that he felt ‘really tired’ during the week, no one could possibly foresee what was about to happen next.

With no warning whatsoever, around 10:00pm, Kuhn collapsed, inexplicably, falling hard onto a table. The plunge was so severe the table broke and as Brett Kuhn rolled away he fell extremely hard, smacking his head ferociously on the solid tile floor.

His good friends Chris Slack (Novi ’10), Tyler Barnes (Novi ’09), and Lauren Forche (Novi ’10) swung into action… immediately! They saw that Brett’s eyes were rolled into the back of his head and he wasn’t breathing.

Forche held Kuhn’s head while Barnes called 911. Meanwhile, Slack sensing something was tragically unusual, began to administer CPR. Additionally, he pumped Kuhn’s chest. This was a veteran move as well. When the heart stops, the absence of oxygenated blood can cause irreparable brain damage in only a few minutes. Additionally, a person may die within eight to10 minutes.

Soon the police arrived, and in spite of one officer’s alleged statement that ‘Brett was already dead,’ his teammates persevered and soon, the paramedics arrived and took over.

Brett Kuhn was airlifted to the University of Michigan and was given first-rate care, but he’d sunk into a coma and things got very serious over the next few days.

Brett was later diagnosed with ‘Sudden Cardiac Arrest,’ and the ultimate irony is that because he and his Novi classmates showed they have hearts of champions, Brett Kuhn recovered and defied the odds.

It was subsequently learned that the prospects for survival after experiencing an event of this nature… are less than a 3% probability!

Don’t tell that to Brett Kuhn or the brave young people that acted swiftly and decisively than evening.

Recently, Kuhn tied his career best in the long jump at 21.950, and as he prepares for track season which is upon us, he’ll now be competing with an ICD that has been surgically inserted into his body.

An ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) is essentially a small computer that keeps track of one’s heartbeat, making sure the beat is steady.

Regardless of this, there can be no question that the collective heart and soul of the friends directly involved that evening, as well as the hundreds of well-wishers and supporters during the Kuhn family ordeal, contributed greatly to one of the most heartwarming stories in the history of this column.

Kudos to all for a never-say-die attitude, and the guts to take decisive action when it mattered most.

The privilege of competing this spring will be extra special for Brett Kuhn, and you just know he’ll be jumping at the chance.

(c) 2011 Novi Information Network
www.novi.org

This column is shared by Alex Prasad, Lance J. Lilla and Bernie Fratto on alternating weeks.