“We are devastated”: 15-year-old Volleyball player dies after heart attack during training, ambulance arrived too late

A terrible tragedy unfolded last Thursday, December 5, on the outskirts of Atlanta (Georgia), in the United States: a 15-year-old student suffered a heart attack while she was training. in volleyball. The emergency services having been slow to intervene, she died several minutes later, explain our colleagues from New York Post.

The events took place in the aisles of the Tracey Wyatt sports complex. The victim, Amanda Sylvester, played for the Dream Chasers club. While warming up, the teenager collapsed to the ground. In eight minutes, emergency services were dispatched to the site: firefighters who were on site carried out treatment before contacting emergency services to bring an ambulance. “The young woman was conscious at the time,” explains Bill Crane, spokesperson for Fulton County. “Her vital signs were all normal, she was able to make eye contact, her pupils were not dilated…”

A “tragic loss”

But the minutes tick by, and the ambulance is slow to arrive. After 40 minutes of no news, Amanda Sylvester's mother decided to take charge of the situation and take the young athlete to Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital. During the journey, the victim is no longer conscious. Suffering from heart failure, the volleyball player was able to be resuscitated once before she died suddenly.

“We are all devastated by this tragic loss,” commented Emmanuel Adediran, principal of College Park, where the young girl attended school. An investigation has been opened to find out why the ambulance took so long to arrive on site. The emergency service, for its part, affirms that initially, the intervention was not considered “risky”.