Teen victim of cardiac arrest at school thanks rescue team

“All dark from there,” Aiden said, trying to remember the order of events of that fateful day.

After Aiden suffered cardiac arrest, he received CPR treatment from three Career Center fire instructors. Then Clearcreek Township. Paramedics arrived, used an AED and restarted his heart en route to the Level III emergency trauma center at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown.

There he was treated by Dr. Ryan Babienco.

“When a child comes in after a cardiac arrest, that really grabs your attention,” Babienco said. “When you have a child like this, you feel like there has to be something to do next. There must be a reason for this to happen. I used everything I could think of. I threw everything and the kitchen sink to help.

When Aiden's parents, Joshua Williamson and Chelsea Viox, drove to Atrium, they were not informed of the seriousness of their son's condition. They found him in the emergency room, lifeless.

“It’s the worst thing you want to see as a parent,” said Williamson, a Cincinnati firefighter who lives in Monroe.

So they stood at the end of the bed and begged their son to wake up.

“They always tell you, 'You need to talk to them.' They hear you. I did and started talking to him and rubbing his hair and saying, “You need to wake up. You have to fight,” Williamson said, his voice breaking.

After showing signs of life, Aiden was airlifted to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where he remained in intensive care for nine days.

He returned to his engineering and robotics classes at the Career Center in February, a month after suffering cardiac arrest. No one knows why he suffered a heart attack.

On Friday afternoon, many of those who saved Aiden's life attended a moving ceremony in Clearcreek Township. Fire Station 21. He hugged each of them and presented them with a certificate and a challenge coin, as a token of his appreciation.

“It makes me so grateful that I’m actually here and that all of these amazing people were able to bring me back,” Aiden said. “I can’t thank them enough. They're all my best friends now. I wouldn't be here with them.

During the ceremony, Jordan Jeffries, EMS coordinator at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, said those who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have a survival rate of less than 7 percent.

“It’s extremely rare,” Jeffries said, noting that Aiden retained his ability to function normally. “You have to celebrate that every day.”

Aiden's mother, who lives in Maineville, said he suffered a cardiac arrest “in the right place, at the right time.”

Aiden said getting a second chance at life changed his perspective.

“Life can be so short, and you don't really realize it until something like this happens and you're like, 'Woah,'” he said. “Life can be so short. You don't know when it will end.