Hillsborough deputy saves high school student with CPR after collapse

A family in Hillsborough County said their 17-year-old son is alive after an AED was used to save his life after he collapsed during track practice.

Ansel Laureano, 17, collapsed on the track at Leto High School during practice last week. One of the track coaches said their practice started out like every other practice.

"Ansel was in good spirits," Lauren Palek, the girls track coach at Leto High School, said. "We did a warm-up mile, and he was joking about his mile time. Regular Monday."

READ: Multiple RVs destroyed in early morning fire at dealership in Dover

After one of their first training exercises, Palek said Laureano suddenly collapsed when he reached the finish line.

"He just dropped," Palek said.

As a three-sport athlete and starter on the soccer team, Laureano never expected something like this to happen.

"It doesn’t even seem real, because I do this every day," Laureano said. "It’s my thing."

Palek said she was the only coach on the field at the time, so she raced over to Laureano, while she called the principal’s office and got on the phone with 911.

"It almost looked like he was having a seizure, to be honest," she said. "So when I was talking to the 911 operator, and we were checking his vitals, even though he was still kind of moving, we could tell he wasn’t breathing. So then, she instructed me to start CPR."

Assistant Principal Scott Hazlett heard the call on the radio about a student who had collapsed, so he grabbed the AED and raced down to the track.

"When I got to the track, and you’re looking, it’s almost surreal," Hazlett said.

Within minutes, Hillsborough County Deputy Deena Biland got to the school to help. When she arrived, the student was already hooked up to an AED and had received an initial shock, according to HCSO.

She began CPR until Hillsborough County Fire Rescue arrived and administered a second shock from their AED. The student regained a pulse and was taken to St. Joseph's Main Hospital.