Eighth-grader revived after cardiac arrest in class

A Tracy eighth-grader is recovering after a near-fatal medical emergency last week, which brought first-responders to a classroom at Freiler Elementary School to revive her.

Heather Freligh, 13, was in class right after lunch on Friday when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest, slumped over at her desk and then fell to the floor. Her father, Derek Freligh, said that quick action by school staff, who immediately administered CPR, and classmates who called 9-1-1, saved her life.

“While this event is very sad and touches the heart, it has a happy ending because of the community around her that saved her life,” Derek said. At the time nobody knew what had happened, only that Heather had collapsed and was turning blue from lack of oxygen because of apparent cardiac arrest.

Tracy Police got the call regarding a 13-year-old in full arrest at the school at 2421 W. Lowell Ave. at 11:40 a.m. Freiler School Principal Stephen Theall confirmed that he performed CPR on Heather while a student called 9-1-1.

“The calm and immediate action of the teacher Alayna Evans, the student who made the 9-1-1 call and clearly answered every question asked by the dispatcher, and every student in the class who quickly acted on everything they were told to do, our entire team acted quickly and every contribution, both big and small, played a role in helping,” Theall said.

The first Tracy Police officer on the scene, Officer Alex Contreras, took over CPR as soon as he arrived. South San Joaquin County Fire Authority paramedics deployed a LUCAS mechanical CPR device to keep Heather’s blood flowing while she was transported to Sutter Tracy Community Hospital.

“Either during the LUCAS device CPR or on her ambulance ride to the hospital, Heather died and a defibrillator was used to restart her heart, delivering three shocks and causing electrical burns to her chest,” Derek said. “By God’s/Jesus’ grace, her heart restarted. At Sutter Hospital in Tracy, ER doctor and staff worked quickly and had to heavily sedate Heather and install a breathing tube to breathe for Heather.”

An air ambulance transported Heather to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital in Oakland, where she remained sedated and on a breathing tube.

“For 24 hours, it was unknown if Heather would be able to wake up, what condition her brain was in, how long was she without oxygen to her brain, what damage was done to her heart and more,” Derek said. “My wife and I sat with Heather praying and waiting. Family/friends and the community of Tracy, Mountain House and Manteca rallied around us and prayed for Heather as we waited.”

At about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday doctors took Heather off of her sedation medication, and at that point she moved her eyes and squeezed her father’s hand.

She was transferred to the UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital campus in San Francisco, where she is undergoing heart MRI's, stress tests and will most likely have a pacemaker or defibrillator installed in her.

“She is receiving excellent care,” her father said. By Wednesday she was up and walking around, and Derek said that Heather’s recovery is nothing short of amazing.

“She is moving all her body parts, communicating, accessing long term memory and is getting back to her normal self. It was truly a miracle by God to have his type of outcome. Heather is smiling and laughing again.”

Derek said that Heather’s crisis came without warning, as she is an athletic teenager with no underlying medical conditions, allergies or family history of similar medical emergencies.

“Doctors do not know why this happened. Heather is extremely active in playing basketball for her community and school and helps teach basketball for her community. She plays basketball so well, that she is on a boy's competitive travel basketball team, AAU Tracy Spartans,” Derek said.

She’s one of five children, with two older brothers and two younger brothers. Derek said that he has been a deputy sheriff for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office for 17 years and was recently injured chasing down and apprehending a criminal suspect. Her mother, Lyn, is a manager at Amazon in Tracy and went on unpaid leave so she could be with Heather full-time and also care for her brothers.

Derek added that he coaches numerous sports in Tracy and Mountain House over the past 12 years, and the friendships the family has made through those activities are a big part of Heather’s story.

Those friends include Nicole Carson, who started a GoFundMe page to help raise money for some of Heather’s medical expenses. As of Wednesday the GoFundMe had raised $28,044 of its $40,000 goal.

“I say this because we have built up a community of families we have helped for so long that they all heard about what happened and turned around to now help us,” Derek said. “I was speechless to see the support and many tears we shed for the love and support everyone showed to our family. Not to mention the Tracy Fire Department, Tracy Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Office rally behind and help support our family.”

Contact Bob Brownne at brownne@tracypress.com, or call 209-830-4227.