Murfreesboro teen's life saved by AED during little league game, 'absolute miracle'

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tyler Olsen is a typical 16-year-old.

He likes hanging out with his friends, and loves sports, especially baseball.

But just eight months ago, Tyler experienced the scare of a lifetime.

Him going down still replays in my head just about every day,” his dad Brian Olsen said.

Brian says he was coaching his son’s little league game in June 2022, when Tyler stepped up to the plate.

“He fouled off a ball, stepped out of the batter's box and collapsed,” Brian said.

Brian yelled for his wife, Jaime, who rushed down to the field to help.

Tyler was born with a heart defect and wears a chest protector.

“I immediately ripped that out and just started doing compressions on him,” Jaime said.

As Jaime continued CPR, another parent ran to the concessions stand.

Thankfully, the Murfreesboro field is equipped with an automated external defibrillator, commonly known as an AED.

Another parent trained in physical therapy applied the AED, as the rest of the team bowed their heads in prayer.

“Everybody was standing there just bowing and praying and holding each other and it was just it was nothing shy of an absolute miracle that day on that field,” Jaime said.

Tyler remembers the moment he came to, after the AED helped shock his heart back to normal rhythm.

“Just waking up, I saw bright lights, it took me a couple minutes for my eyes to open up,” Tyler said.

Tyler was flown by helicopter to the hospital, where doctors helped him make a full recovery.

His parents say quick access to the AED was key in saving Tyler’s life.

“They said this is not how it normally turns out, it's like a ten percent chance without an AED there of survival,” Brian and Jaime said.

And doctors agree.

Dr. English Flack specializes in pediatric cardiology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Dr. Flack says the technology is lifesaving. She says AEDs are used following sudden cardiac arrest and help normalize a patient’s heartbeat as they wait for medical attention. A patient’s chance of survival goes down by ten percent every minute following cardiac arrest without a defibrillator.

Dr. Flack says sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, even professional athletes, as shown by NFL player Damar Hamlin, who was saved by an AED during a medical emergency earlier this year.

“The honest truth is we could screen everyone and we will still miss people that could have a sudden cardiac arrest,” Dr. Flack said.

FOX 17 News wanted to know how protected a family is in the event of cardiac arrest.

FOX 17 dug through Tennessee law and found AEDs are required in public schools and strongly encouraged in private schools.

But there’s no law requiring the devices in public places like ball fields and community centers.

FOX 17 contacted state Senator Art Swann, the lawmaker who sponsored the legislation for AEDs in schools, asking whether he would consider expanding the law to public spaces.

FOX 17 did not hear back by the deadline.

“Why is it not in every school, in every house of worship, in every community center, because really those are the places that so much of our population spend the majority of their day, and so many large groups gather at all of those places,” Dr. Flack said.

It’s a question shared by the Olsen family, who started researching AEDs following Tylers’ emergency.

“There's not AEDs at a lot of these ball fields. A lot of them are run by parents and they're not organized,” Jaime said.

But the family isn’t waiting on lawmakers to make change.

They’ve started a non-profit, Fighting Chance. The 501-C works to raise money to donate AEDs to organizations in need across the country. They also work to spread awareness on the topic, sharing their story with various teams and groups.

They also work with Dr. Flack as part of Project Adam, a group dedicated to CPR and AED training in schools.

“Knowing that this happens randomly to families, we didn't want another family to go through to lose their child,” Jaime said.

To learn more about Fighting Chance, you can visit their Facebook Page or email: fightingchanceaed@gmail.com

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