LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo — A Lee’s Summit family is on a mission to promote heart safety and awareness.
It is a cause dear to their hearts after their 18-year-old son, Sam Bundren, suffered a cardiac arrest during soccer practice last fall.
He remembers feeling lightheaded and then waking up in an ambulance.
“They were like yeah, like you were dead for seven minutes,” Bundren said. “I was pretty much like perfectly healthy all the time; I mean no major injuries throughout my entire high school career and regular career.”
The Bundren family kicked off a t-shirt fundraiser that will run through Monday, Jan. 23.
Half of all proceeds will go towards heart safety awareness and raising funds for a scholarship.
The recipient is 17-year-old Brendan Adams, who saved Bundren’s life on the field.
“I wasn’t thinking about anything — I just did it,” Adams said. “I didn’t expect it at all to happen, but it’s a good feeling to know that now I know what to expect.”
Adams had learned CPR through his EMT training just one year prior to the incident. It has been his lifelong dream to follow his father’s footsteps and become a firefighter.
Adams tells KSHB 41 he always knew the day would come when he had to use his skills.
Lee’s Summit High School’s athletic trainer Angela Oswald says that is the value in early education and prevention.
No one ever knows when they will need it, if they will need it and who may need it. That is why CPR is taught in her classes.
“They require all students hands-only CPR, so we are teaching that through the PE courses and they have to have that as the graduation requirement,” Oswald said.
Sam Bundren is grateful for his teammate and friend who saved his life.
Now he is using the fundraiser to raise awareness and pay it forward. He refuses to watch from the sidelines — not after he almost lost his life.
“It can happen to anyone. Like me — just a regular high school student. It just happened to me one regular day,” Bundren said. “I’m just using it to spread awareness about cardiac arrest in general.”
From one athlete to another, Damar Hamlin’s recent cardiac arrest was a tough one for Bunden.
But he is leveraging the heightened awareness right now and turning it into something good.
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