EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- East Grand Rapids Public Schools teacher Jacqueline Burdick accepted the "Chief's Citation" award for her
life-saving efforts Monday night.
The award stems from a traumatic incident on February 16. Matt Krctovich was playing a pick-up game of basketball when he suffered a heart attack and lost conciousness.
Krctovich, 47, said he's thankful East Grand Rapids Public Schools has an automated external defibrillator (AED). He's even more thankful Burdick knew how to use it. She happened to stay late in her classroom that day.
She said she heard calls for help and grabbed the AED.
"I just responded, and I didn't expect all the hoopla that goes with it," Burdick told FOX 17.
"You just do what you have to do, and I was glad to be there at the right time."
Burdick used the AED to shock Krctovich's heart and then performed CPR on him.
"There's only six of us in our building that are trained to do this, two of which are not full-time," she said. "I was just fortunate that I had been trained."
"I was thankful the school had an AED to begin with. I probably walked by the thing twenty times and never knew it was there. So I was glad Jackie (Burdick) was there working late and that she did what she did, that she didn't give up on me."
"There's a lot more people that need an awareness on this. The fact that people have them, that's great. But people need to know how to use them, and people need to know how to administer CPR as well."
Five East Grand Rapids Public Safety officers who responded were also recognized for their efforts.
Burdick learned from a doctor that, in this instance, the CPR wouldn't have been as effective without the shock from the AED.
