Alabama HS player who collapsed won’t play this season

The Alabama high school football player who collapsed at practice earlier this month continues to improve.

Adaveion Jackson, the Dale County teen who was saved when coaches performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator after he went into cardiac arrest, recently visited a practice. He has not returned to school.

“He has a chance to live a life, to do whatever he wants to do,” Dale County coach Don Moore said.

Dale County superintendent Ben Baker said Jackson won’t be able to play football this season.

“But we know there’s more important things than playing football,” he said.

Jackson apparently had an undiagnosed heart condition, and Baker said he believes the high school sophomore has undergone surgery to install a pacemaker, an implanted device that helps a patient’s heart beat more regularly.

A sophomore, Jackson collapsed about 10 minutes into practice on Aug. 6, the second day of fall drills for AHSAA teams. He was first taken by ambulance to a hospital in nearby Dothan and then airlifted to Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham.

At Tuesday’s AHSAA Media Day event in Montgomery, AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese presented certificates of appreciation to Baker and Dale County coach Don Moore. Savarese stressed the importance of the AHSAA’s emergency action plans and praised Dale County officials for creating and practicing it before it was needed to save Jackson.

Baker revived his call for AEDs to be placed in every school and in every athletic venue in Alabama.

“A player died on our sideline,” Moore said. “If not for having an AED, he would not be here.”

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