Michigan family turns son’s cardiac death into school AED mission

GRAND LEDGE, Mich. (Aging Untold) — Fourteen-year-old Everson Guild was a football player, band member, student council member and wrestler. He went into sudden cardiac arrest at football practice at Grand Ledge High School on July 24, 2017, just a month away from starting high school. His father, Chris, said he received a phone call around 8:30 a.m. that day telling him to come to the school because Everson had passed out and an ambulance was on the way. AEDs and CPR-trained staff were on site In 2017, Grand Ledge High School was designated a “My Heart Safe School,” meaning automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, were on site and coaches were trained in CPR. “Everyone was there doing the right thing,” Everson’s mother, Laura, said. Despite those measures, Everson did not survive. Laura said he had no genetic abnormalities and his heart was strong. “Even though he passed away, there’s still that peace that he had the best chance of survival he could have gotten,” Laura said. School