A Young Athlete Struck by Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Meet Brittan. On December 5, 2008, then 16-year old Brittan Sutphin had just started routine swim practice at the Wheat Ridge Recreation Center. While she has no memory of getting into the pool that day her life was about to change forever. After swimming a lap her teammates witnessed Brittan begin to violently flop around in the water. “Most of my teammates assumed I was joking and fooling around.” She was later told. Fortunately, one of her teammates knew it was no joke and pulled Brittan from the water.

Her swim coach administered CPR to try and revive her, but it wasn’t working. Luckily, the recreation center had an AED and one of the lifeguards ran to retrieve it. Time was of the essence and everyone knew it. Within moments Brittan’s swim coach, who was trained in lifesaving skills, placed the AED on Brittan’s chest and followed the device’s verbal instructions.

The AED shocked Brittan’s heart and brought her back to life.

Today, Brittan maintains her active schedule playing competitive sports and is an accomplished NCAA Division III Women’s ranked tennis player and attends Claremont-McKenna College in California.

Brittan hasn’t let “the accident” slow her down. Quite the contrary. Brittan campaigns to raise money and awareness to help get AEDs placed at schools and sporting venues. She also started an organization of her own called YBSAD (Youth Battling Sudden Arrhythmia Deaths) focused on raising awareness and education of Sudden Arrhythmia Deaths and sudden cardiac arrest in youth. YBSAD intends to promote, fund, and facilitate youth heart screening programs and AED placement throughout the state of Colorado. Brittan also supports Save A Life Denver.

Now that’s impressive. Advantage Brittan. We’ll be cheering for you.