CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. — In the right place at the right time – a man was at his granddaughter’s basketball game when a referee collapsed on the court – thankfully, he knew just what to do.
Jon Schaefer is a full-time grandfather, an officer with the Wayland Police Department and a firefighter for the Dorr Township Fire Department.
“I just was living my life and growing a family, and we were attacked on 9/11,” Schaefer said. “And I felt like it was my time to serve, and I was ready to enlist with the military, but my wife, with four little kids at home, said that’s not going to happen. So, I looked for a different way and I found law enforcement.”
Wayland’s JV girls basketball team traveled to Cedar Springs Tuesday for a game. Schaefer also made the trip to cheer on his granddaughter.
“We were up there, was off duty, went up there with my wife to watch our granddaughter play basketball,” Schaefer said.
Then, his commitment to serve and protect kicked in when someone had a medical emergency.
“There was a lull in the action, timeout or something like that, and then one of the referees had collapsed onto the floor. And it was obvious to me he was having some sort of an event, whether it was cardiac or seizure, did not know,” Schaefer recalled. “Everything kicked in, and it was just follow through with the training I’ve received and then just do the job that was ahead of me.”
He didn’t know right away what was happening, but he knew he had to help.
“Ran right to him and began, well, we start with CPR,” he said.
But Schaefer humbly added that he’s not the only one who sprang into action.
“Someone to call 911 and ask someone to go get an AED. And then I started compressions,” he said. “It was very much a team, and I use the word cohesive. It was like we just came together, and it was like we had been doing this for years, like we’ve done it before together.”
The referee still is recovering in the hospital, according to Schaefer.
“I’m glad I was there for you,” Schaefer told FOX 17 what he would say to the referee if he ever met him again. “I pray that God continues to use you in this life. There’s a reason why He had us all there for this moment.”
Schaefer can't stress enough the importance of getting CPR certified because every second counts.
If performed immediately, according to the American Heart Association, CPR can double or even triple the chance of survival from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
