Westfield parents revive basketball referee in cardiac arrest

When the halftime buzzer sounded on Westfield's basketball court Thursday night, it was almost game over for referee Bruce Sanson.

With his arms raised in the air, Sanson blew the whistle as the middle school girls scurried toward the locker room.

From Chris Hayes' perch near the top of the bleachers, he noticed Sanson's eyes roll back in his head as the 6-foot-tall official fell to the floor in cardiac arrest.

Hayes, who works in Protection and Control services for Georgia Power, raced outside to his truck to grab the company's automated external defibrillator he carries for crew emergencies on high voltage lines.

He was still in shock Friday describing what he and others witnessed in the same gym where basketball player Tucker Moody sustained a heart attack three years ago. Moody was revived by a doctor who was there with the visiting team from Crisp County. He later had surgery to repair a previously undiagnosed heart defect.

Thursday, Sanson had the home court advantage.

"The referee collapsed literally at the feet of two doctors, and another doctor was a couple of rows up," said William Carroll, Westfield's head of school.

Doctors Terry and Kim Ham, who were on the front row, rushed to Sanson's side, along with Dr. Jeff Easom and Westfield's trainer, who ran to get one of the school's three AEDs.

"Out of the corner of my eye, I saw (Sanson) running sideways and he slid headfirst to my wife's feet," Terry Ham said.

A hush came over the gymnasium as coaches cleared students away from the commotion and the doctors worked to revive "Bruce the Moose," as Sanson is known to his friends.

Walker Way, who had played in the boys' first game, phoned his mother about what was going on.

Wendy Walker Way had run home during the girls' game to turn off her oven.

"I'm praying, now, and I'm thinking everybody at the gym was praying," she said Friday. "I had a peaceful, good feeling about it."

Hayes was back from his truck in less than a minute, and the doctors were fervently performing CPR on Hanson. No pulse. No heart beat. Shallow breathing.

"It feels like an hour because time slows down so much in these moments of life and death," Carroll said. "It was very, very solemn and quiet in there."

Hayes got down on the floor with the others.

"It was amazing that the doctors were there," he said. "They did all the work."

Ham said it was a team effort.

"I really have to give glory and praise to the Lord," said Ham, who also stressed the importance of having AEDs in place.

With a zap to the heart, Sanson was back.

He remembers hearing the buzzer before everything went dark.

"The next thing I knew, I woke up and everybody was around me," said Sanson, who was rushed to Houston Healthcare, where he will spend a few days. "I'm not out of the woods yet."

One of his arteries was 99 percent blocked, and doctors put in a stent hours after the attack. He will likely have more procedures to clear other blockages, he said.

Sanson, who lives in Macon, said he had not been feeling well that week and was trying to take it easy during the game.

"I thought I was just having acid reflux," he said.

There also was a sharp pain in his elbow, but Sanson didn't let that stop his refereeing.

"I do take my work seriously, and I do take my relationship with God seriously," Sanson said. "I believe God had his hand in this. Otherwise he wouldn't have put in place the people who needed to be there."

Once Sanson was awake and talking, a loud cheer erupted from the stands as he was rolled away.

Carroll, who is extremely proud of how parents "heroically and admirably" sprang into action, led the crowd in prayer and canceled the rest of the night's schedule with Central Georgia Athletics.

"I was just praying that God would put his hand of healing on this man," Carroll said. "It was extremely emotional. It was horrible and awful and scary, and then it was amazing."

Hayes had dreaded the day he would have to pull out the AED.

"I was hoping I would never have to ever use my defibrillator, but it's pretty amazing what happened," he said.

Later, as Wendy Way looked over her cellphone pictures from the first game, she saw an image of Sanson.

Over his head, beams of light from one of the ceiling fixtures formed a cross.

She posted it on Facebook with a Scripture verse from John 10:10 -- "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."

Sanson, an Army veteran who works at the Bass Pro Shops distribution center, takes soldiers on fly fishing trips through his Project Healing Waters ministry.

"I love putting a smile on people's faces and have them forget about their problems for a day," he said.

The relationships he builds gives him an opportunity to "share God's love," he said.

Friday marked Sanson's 49th birthday, and although his heart attack canceled his plans to go fishing in the north Georgia mountains, he had plenty to celebrate.

"God let me see 49. How about that," he said. "If it had been anyplace else, I might not have been here talking to you."

To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303 and find her on Twitter@liz_lines.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Westfield parents revive basketball referee in cardiac arrest ."