Published January 14, 2025

By Trevor Greenway

Local Journalism Initiative

Mike Kavanagh says he is lucky to be alive after he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed on the gym floor of the Wakefield Elementary School during a basketball game Dec. 5. 

His quick-thinking teammates started CPR immediately and shocked him with a defibrillator to kick-start his heart.

“All of the people that were at basketball are really heroes,” said Kavanagh two weeks after the incident. “The amazing group of basketball players I play with, and their quick and decisive actions, saved my life.” 

The incident occurred when Kavanagh said he began feeling dizzy during intermission, and his sight became “dark and narrow,” before he blacked out and collapsed. He regained consciousness in an ambulance  a short time later, where paramedics told him that his teammates’ calm, quick actions saved his life. 

Kavanagh told the Low Down that he has fully recovered from the episode with no heart or brain damage. He didn’t have a heart attack but suffered cardiac arrhythmia, an abnormality in the timing or pattern of the heartbeat. At the Hull Hospital, doctors discovered that Kavanagh’s main artery was 85 per cent blocked, and another secondary artery was 60 per cent blocked. Had it not been for the actions of his teammates Jamie Bartle, Alex Dubien, and Chloe Rothman, among many others, Kavanagh likely would have died on the court. 

“The chest compressions and shock of the defibrillator saved my life, while first responders were en route,” said Kavanagh. “The paramedic point blank told the gang that this definitely saved my life. I had the blockages cleared, and two stents put in and was told I will have no heart damage at all. Truly a miracle. I get a second chance at life thanks to being in the right place at the right time with a group of people that I will treasure forever for what they did for me and my family.”

Kavanagh’s 15-year-old son, Aodhan, was at the game when it happened, and he called his mom immediately, who was travelling to Vancouver with her two daughters to see a Taylor Swift concert. Stephanie Mullen-Kavanagh was in an Edmonton hotel room when she got the call. She said it was excruciating to helplessly listen to her husband receive CPR. 

“I was on the phone with Aodhan, listening to them do the chest compressions,” said Mullen-Kavanagh. “I could hear them saying, ‘Come on, Mike. Come on.’ It was just, I can’t even,” she paused. “It was…it was heartbreaking because there was so much uncertainty, and I was worried about my son as well. He’s only 15. I can’t even describe it, and my girls were so upset.”

Mullen-Kavanagh said she and her daughters then endured the most worrisome hour of their lives as they waited for news. 

“We didn’t know if he was alive,” said Mullen-Kavanagh. 

They immediately booked flights home – the final flight out of Edmonton – and then the phone rang, a FaceTime call from Kavanagh himself. 

“And he was totally fine,” said Mullen-Kavanagh.

She and her daughters bailed on Taylor Swift, and headed back east to be with their dad.

Kavanagh spent three days in hospital and was out by Dec. 8. 

“I can’t even put into words to express my gratefulness to all those folks at basketball,” said Mullen-Kavanagh. “First of all, they stayed calm, and they kept my son safe as well. The physician told my son that, when Mike got to the Hull Hospital, they saved my husband’s life. They really did. It would have changed the trajectory of our family.”

Quick-thinking teammates

According to several people who were at the Dec. 5 game, the players – many of them with first aid training – sprang into action, with Bartle starting CPR immediately and others doing anything they could to help.

“The most incredible part about all of this is that, within 45 seconds…compressions were happening, people were looking for an [automated external defibrillator, AED], and I was calling 911,” said Rothman, adding that Kavanagh had “no pulse” when he first collapsed. Other players were removing Kavanagh’s clothes, directing traffic outside and waving the ambulance into the building. “The response was amazing,” added Rothman. 

Bartle, a canoe-maker, has over 20 years of first aid training – advanced courses like river rescue and winter survival – and said that when he saw Kavanagh collapse on the court, both his training and his instincts took over. He said at first he didn’t know what was wrong with Kavanagh, but as soon as he got close, he realized it was serious. 

“Pretty quickly we could see that he was not breathing…,” said Bartle. 

Fellow player, Alex Dubien, was also there and said that, after about a minute of CPR, Kavanagh regained consciousness slightly and started breathing again momentarily, but then they “lost him again.” That’s when Dubien said he realized they needed a defibrillator, and before he could even look for one, another player had already grabbed it. Dubien said there was a key moment when another player suggested not to use the defibrillator and instead wait for paramedics. 

“My first aid training kicked in, and I was like, ‘No, no, it’s the first thing we need to do,’” said Dubien, who is a tree-climber and arborist by trade. “So I prepared the AED, followed the instructions and then we applied it to Mike.” 

Dubien administered the shock, and Kavanagh was immediately responsive.

“It instantly seemed to have revived him,” said Dubien, adding that the defibrillator then instructed them to continue CPR, which they did. “And then he just looked better. He was breathing. So we put him back into a recovery position, and then the first aid responder showed up.”

Kavanagh said that he is a relatively healthy person; a non-smoker, who is active. The heart condition is hereditary, he said, and doctors told him there was nothing he could have done differently to prevent the episode. However, the Kavanagh family is now championing CPR courses for locals and are hosting their own training weekend for friends, family and basketball players in the new year. 

Bartle echoed that message, noting that, had it not been for his extensive training that took over, he’s not sure if this incident would have had such a happy ending. 

“So many of us, especially around here, are in the [Gatineau] Park skiing, doing canoe trips. Those advanced level CPR courses have impacted my life in a big way just by preparing me for stuff like this,” said Bartle. 

Defibrillator installed a decade ago

Wakefield Elementary principal Julie Fram-Greig told the Low Down that the school’s defibrillator was installed 10 years ago, around the time that the new school opened. Quebec’s Ministry of Education made it mandatory this June for all public schools in Quebec to have a defibrillator. Fram-Greig said she is grateful the school made the choice to install it in an easily accessible place. 

“Ours is located outside the gym so that it could also be accessible to the community if they are using the gym,” said Fram-Greig. “Good thing, as it was an important step in saving him,” she added about Kavanagh.

After such a harrowing and terrifying experience, the Kavanagh–Mullen family will be having an extra special Christmas. And, even if they had no gifts under the tree, Kavanagh said he already feels like his family “won the lottery.”

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