VIDEO: A Greeley father says he is lucky to be alive after suffering cardiac arrest during a basketball game in February.ย David McLarty, who did not have any prior symptoms or familial history of cardiac arrest, said he collapsed in a school gym while playing basketball.ย “I was playing against my daughter in a parent versus kids basketball game,” McLarty told CBS Colorado.ย
McLarty was playing in the S. Christa McAuliffe STEM Academy gymnasium in Greeley when he suddenly felt ill and had difficulty breathing.ย “I was feeling fine until I started running from one end of the court to the other, and I noticed I was having a hard time breathing,” McLarty explained. “I got tunnel vision and ended up just collapsing right here on the floor.”
In the stands watching the game was Alonso Gallardo, the grandfather of one of the student athletes.ย Gallardo said he initially wasn’t planning on attending the game but decided to show up at the last minute because he loves watching his granddaughter play sports.ย “I immediately got up,” Gallardo told CBS Colorado. “I started to perform CPR.”
Someone grabbed the AED from the hallway while Gallardo and his daughter performed CPR on McLarty.ย Fortunately for McLarty, Gallardo was the perfect person to have nearby during the cardiac arrest. “I am a 25-year veteran of the Denver Fire Department,” Gallardo said.ย
