Yorktown HS football team dedicates season's 2nd game to local nurses

The tribute was prompted after medical professionals helped to save the life of the father of an assistant coach.

News 12 Staff

Sep 17, 2022, 2:33 AM

Updated 831 days ago

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The second Yorktown High School football game of the season Friday night honored local nurses.
The tribute was prompted after medical professionals helped to save the life of the father of an assistant coach.
"Last February, we went to Disney with my family and then the last night, my dad sat down on one of the benches. Within five seconds of him sitting, he collapsed face first onto the boat," assistant coach Jeff Cerar recounted. "There happened to be three emergency room nurses on that boat at that exact moment that came sprinting over and started performing CPR, they got an AED, brought him back to life."
And so head coach Pantelis Ypsilantis had an idea.
"I felt like after what Jeff had been through with his family, the way those nurses were really angels for him and did so much for him, I felt like it would be fitting to honor nurses at this game," Ypsilantis said.
The team invited all the nurses in the district to walk across the field before the game and handed them flowers.
"Save one life, you're a hero. Save thousands of lives, you're a nurse," Ypsilantis added.
The American Heart Association stood on the sidelines to teach the lifesaving CPR that saved coach Cerar's father.
"It's really simple, you need a cell phone to call 911, you need two hands so you can push hard and fast in the center of the chest, and as long as you can keep a pretty simple beat... and keep applying pressure until the EMTs or ambulance shows up, then you really can save a life," says the Association's Diego Ortiz.
According to the American Heart Association, 300,000 cardiac arrests take place outside of hospitals every single year.