Athletic training alumna saves man’s life at high school cross-country meet

Kathryn Crouthamel (’16), a graduate of Liberty University’s athletic training program, began her job on March 3 as an athletic trainer for her former high school in Madison County, Va., not knowing that her training would be needed to save a stranger’s life that evening.

While she would have usually been at a football practice that afternoon, the nice weather prompted Crouthamel to visit the school’s cross-country meet nearby, a decision that she now sees as being orchestrated by God.

“The weather that day was great and I wanted to check out cross-country, and the football practice was not too far,” Crouthamel said. “I think about it now, and I consider it a nudge from God. He put me there for a reason.”

As she was watching the race, she noticed that one of the other schools’ coaches was very physically active in coaching his team, running up and down the trail. Close to the end of the race, Crouthamel heard her principal behind her calling her for help. The coach had collapsed and was unresponsive, and Crouthamel immediately saw her opportunity to help.

“I didn’t see him fall, but when I turned and saw him, I went into action,” she said.

Crouthamel immediately began CPR, had someone grab an automatic external defibrillator (AED) device out of her car, and administered shock and continued compressions until EMS arrived. Another man and woman joined Crouthamel in the effort to save the coach’s life, and he began responding and speaking after getting treatment from the paramedics.

“The EMS told me that I and my quick thinking were the only reason he was alive,” Crouthamel said. “In the ambulance once he came to, he asked them, ‘Did I pass out?’ They said, ‘No sir, you died.’”

The coach was then airlifted to UVA University Hospital in Charlottesville for further treatment. Crouthamel said that she spoke with the man on the phone over the weekend and he is still undergoing tests to determine what caused his collapse.

Throughout the incident, which she described as still being a blur in her mind, Crouthamel said that she felt an odd amount of calmness, which contributed to her ability to do what God had placed her there to do.

“I felt like I had to focus on what was in front of me, that this man needed help; I wasn’t thinking about the stakes of it,” she said. “You don’t think you’re going to use it until you do, and God gave me calmness and allowed me to do what I had trained to do. We know that things could have gone differently that day. But thankfully they didn’t, and I am just thankful God chose me to be in that position.”

As Crouthamel recalled her time in Liberty’s program where she learned the life-saving skills she used last week, she said she is thankful for the way her professors took the time to get to know her and enrich the learning environment.

“We had great professors, and they really invested in us as individuals,” she said. “When you want someone to listen to what you have to say, you have to earn their trust and respect. So that is what they did; they invested their time and built a relationship to where I really wanted to listen to what they were teaching me and the power of the knowledge that they shared.”

As a student in the athletic training degree program, Crouthamel was assigned to work hours in different clinical sites to gain hands-on experience, and she said that her time spent with Liberty men’s basketball head athletic trainer Aaron Schreiner was her favorite placement.

“He pushed me to be the best that I could, and it allowed me to become more confident in my skills and know that he was always there to encourage and answer any questions,” Crouthamel said. “His mentorship is something that I will carry with me for a long time, and his friendship is something that I cherish. A lot of his work is done behind the scenes but it goes without saying that he is just as much a part of this story about me helping to save this man’s life as I am.”