South End Spirit’s Jasper Wickes recovers from cardiac arrest

A teenage basketball prodigy is continuing to make a remarkable recovery after he went into cardiac arrest during training with his coach and a stranger on hand to save him.

A Melbourne teenage basketball prodigy who went into cardiac arrest during training is continuing to make a remarkable recovery just over a month since the incident.

South End Spirit’s Jasper Wickes faced the fight of his life when he collapsed and started seizing during a January session at Hoop Culture in Carrum Downs in front of a stunned crowd.

The 16-year-old, who had no previously diagnosed medical conditions, was attended to by his coach of four years, Hayden Jardine, who “immediately recognised something wasn’t right”.

Mr Jardine tried to help Jasper breathe while checking for a heart rate after a spectator called triple-0.

“He was lying there with his eyes wide open, completely unresponsive. It is not something you’d expect from an active teenager,” Hayden recalled.

“At one point I looked up and could see the boys watching on and the (scared) look on all their faces.”

Suddenly, Jess Purcell — a GoodSAM, an app that connects patients in cardiac arrest with a nearby volunteer, responder — came running to the scene with Mr Jardine performing mouth-to-mouth on the young man.

Ms Purcell, who had only registered on the app days earlier, started performing chest compressions on the teenager.

“When I saw it, I thought it was a practice notification or something, because I had only just signed up to GoodSAM,” she said.

“I opened my phone and realised it was real, it was happening; I ran outside and saw someone standing on the street for emergency services and I could hear the sirens in the background, so I just started running.”

Jasper Wickes during his recovery in hospital.

A few days after the incident, Jasper was fitted with a pacemaker and remained in hospital for 15 days.

He has since been discharged and has even started Year 11.

Jasper has since returned to training where Mr Jardine has handed the reins over him to as coach.

“Life is precious,” Jasper said.

“I feel very supported knowing that so many people stepped in to help me, right there in the middle of basketball training.

“I imagine it would have been a shock to everyone there. I’m very thankful for what everyone did. They’re heroic.”

Jasper Wickes with his coach Hayden Jardine.

Jasper’s mother Simone said her son’s traumatic event had come as a shock.

“Jasper is a basketballer; he’s fit, he’s healthy, he’s happy and we never expected this could have happened,” she said.

“We can’t thank everyone enough. When Jasper arrived at the hospital, they kept saying the paramedics were truly amazing and everything they did for him gave him the best chance of survival.

“Every time he sees a paramedic or an ambulance now, he salutes them.”

Fire Rescue Victoria, Advanced Life Support paramedics and Ambulance Victoria Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedics and MICA student Chloe Abel also attended the scene.

“Jasper was incredibly lucky everything aligned for him. It was a real team effort that helped save his life,” Chloe said.

“He showed good signs of stability immediately post cardiac arrest, and he’s gone on to make a quick recovery. If that cardiac arrest happened somewhere else — where there was no-one around — we know it is most likely would have been a different outcome.

“This young person is going to go on to live a normal life and that outcome is something that everyone should be incredibly proud of.”