Page 75 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHTSTEADFASTLOEBy Tomi L. Wiley • Photography by Nathan SparksLIVES ARE CHANGED EVERY DAY WITH THE SUPPORTT OFFERED BY THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATIONHEY THOUGHT THE WORST WAS BEHIND “He wasn’t breathing; he was in cardiac arrest,” says THEM. But on an early Friday morning, while Buckner, his voice tight. “I had taken a few CPR classes simply searching for a pen, David Buckner when he was born, because of what happened, so I knew startled his ve year-old son out of sleep while enough to perform chest compressions.” You can hear the tiptoeing through his bedroom. What happened trepidation in his voice months later. “The doctor said thatnext is every parent’s nightmare. was what kept blood and oxygen going to his brain until “He got up to go get in bed with his mother,” says Buckner the paramedics got there, and kept him from su ering brainof his son, Stone. “I went downstairs, and the next thing I know my wife is screaming Stone’s name and begging him to wake up. I couldn’t get to them fast enough.”Thankfully, he did, and he knew enough CPR to keep his son alive for the 17 minutes that it took EMTs to get there.Stone Buckner was a ghter from the start: born into trauma and wasn’t breathing for almost seven minutes. With his brain deprived of oxygen, baby Stone was kept in the NICU for 13 days, his father says. But he recovered and went on to love playing T-ball and shing. On the morning that this ve year old had a heart attack, the entire family—some 25 people— were making last minute plans for their beach vacation.injuries.”First responders used a de brillator on the little boy,who was moved to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. He was then own to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, where Stone Buckner was eventually diagnosed with Long QT syndrome, a heart rhythm condition that causes fast, chaotic heartbeats. This young boy, who loves hunting and the Avengers, was tted with a pacemaker and takes medication to control his heart rhythm.Stone Buckner was welcomed home by his community at an event held by the American Heart Association and CPR Choice to spread awareness of the dangers of heart disease and theJANUARY FEBRUARY 2017 73