By Patrick Tepoorten

More information has been provided by the North Branch school district and police department in regards to the circumstances surrounding the death of 14-year-old Elijah Randolf Meyer.

Meyer collapsed following a wrestling team captainís practice at about 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

According to Superintendent Rodney Reisnouer, the captainís practice attended by Meyer was under the supervision of an adult, although it was not an official coach of the squad. Coaches are not allowed to attend practices until the legal start date of the season, which is Nov. 21 in the case of wrestling.

The practice, said Reisnouer, was mostly a chance to ìbuild camaraderie and things like that.î Team members worked on some fitness drills and tossed a football around.

Directly following the practice, Meyer was speaking to a classmate when he collapsed. Reisnouer indicated that, to his knowledge, Meyer had not complained of feeling ill or experienced any pain.

There is no information regarding any possible health conditions that might have lent to the death of Meyer. Reisnouer did note that Meyer had participated in 8th grade track the previous year and had a physical before that season began. To his knowledge there was nothing of concern that had arisen from that physical.

Upon Meyerís collapse, three unidentified members of the wrestling team immediately took action. A team member called 911 while the other two, a senior and a sophomore, both trained in CPR, began administering to Meyer.

Shortly thereafter, North Branch police officer Scott Fitzgerald arrived on scene and he and the two boys worked as a team to administer CPR and utilize the Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

Meyer was ultimately transported to Fairview Hospital in Wyoming after a long effort by paramedics and EMTís to stabilize him at the school. He was pronounced dead some time after his arrival.

In regards to the students who attempted to resuscitate Meyer, Reisnouer said ìItís a fragile thing. They did everything right, but the boy still died. But nobody could have done more.î

In fact, AEDís are equipped to record data from an incident such as this and that data was downloaded earlier today at Lakes Region EMS. According to Executive Director Aaron Reinert, the students who assisted Meyer could not have done any better.

ìThe data clearly shows not only the effectiveness of the two person CPR the students performed, but the quality of it,î said Reinert, adding, ìIt was outstanding.î

Reinert added that the AED scores life saving measures taken and that the students scores were ìwell above 90 percent.î

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