District to recognize several credited with saving Fairborn athlete’s life

FAIRBORN — Two Fairborn athletic trainers and a coach are being credited with helping save the life of a student athlete at the high school.

The student-athlete was conditioning for baseball last month, when that student collapsed while running up-and-down the bleachers.

Both Jacie Combs and TJ Tillman, athletic trainers at the high school, got a call from the baseball coach when the scare happened Sept. 17.

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“We were in here doing our normal after school rehab,” Tillman said.

“As soon as I picked up the phone I could tell something was really wrong,” Combs told News Center 7.

Both trainers sprinted to the football field, where the athlete had been training, but not before grabbing a defibrillator.

“As he was coming down the stairs, we’re still not 100 percent certain what caused it, but he does a pre-existing heart condition so we’re not sure if it was a seizure or if he was having heart issues,” Combs said.

Tillman said they took the athlete’s vitals and saw there was no heart rate or breathing. Tillman used the defibrillator, while Combs started compressions.

“I feel super thankful we were there and we had the AED close by so we could do everything we did help,” Combs said.

The student was taken to the hospital. Combs and Tillman said the student has since been released from the hospital and has thanked them.

“We were just happy he’s upright walking and talking and back being close to his normal self,” Tillman said.

The two athletic trainers, along with a teacher and some students, will be recognized in a ceremony at the Fairborn Board of Education meeting.

Cox Media Group