By BETHANY SHERROW
Assistant News Editor

(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — Andrew Canfield stopped breathing 12 days ago.

He was in his dorm room where he was hanging out with some friends after the football game.

Canfield said he started to feel dizzy and tired so he decided to lie down on the floor.

“Next thing I know I’m hyperventilating and in a lot of pain,” Canfield said. “I got in the fetal position and I started crying. Then, I black(ed) out.

“I don’t remember anything that happened the rest of that evening.”

Canfield is a community advisor on the third floor of Nattinger Hall. Two residents who live on his floor were in his room with him: James Hudson and Keyen Broughton.

After Canfield blacked out, Hudson said he noticed Canfield began seizing and breathing heavily.

 

“He stopped breathing, and I got in close to see if I could hear him breathing,” Hudson said. “I couldn’t. So I started doing CPR. I did four or five pumps, and then one breath. He started breathing.”

Broughton called Andrew’s co-community advisor, Eliza Maloney, and dialed 911 while Hudson administered CPR.

Maloney said her initial reaction was to try and remain calm, especially because she was also on duty as a CA that night, so she felt responsible for taking control of the situation.

“But after everyone arrived, I was overwhelmed and taking in how serious the situation was,” she said.

Hudson said the entire situation was awful.

“I was pretty torn-up,” he said. “I didn’t know if he was going to make it or what was going on. Even if he wasn’t one of my best friends, it would still be pretty scary.”

Hudson answered all the EMT’s questions when they arrived, and he rode in the ambulance to Western Missouri Medical Center while Canfield was being assessed.

Many residents on Canfield’s floor saw the scene unfolding so they followed the ambulance to the hospital.

Jake Trahern, who has been one of Canfield’s best friends since pre-teen years, said at least 20 people were in the waiting room that night, Sept. 19.

“I was really glad that we had a lot of people there to support him,” he said.

Trahern said since he is older than many of the people who were there, and since he has known Canfield so long, he felt obligated to remain calm and collected although he felt very worried about his friend.

“I wanted him to be back to himself,” Trahern said. “I couldn’t really accept it.”

Canfield said he felt everyone’s support from the beginning of the situation.

“Everybody was supporting me,” he said. “Everybody was praying for me. People came to see me.”

While he spent the entire week in the hospital, Canfield said he was worried about school and not being able to catch up. He’s a sophomore nursing major, and he said getting behind in classes is not an option.

Canfield said he works hard in his classes because he has personal convictions in pursuing a career as a nurse. After his high school friend died, he decided to change his plans of becoming a zoologist to nursing.

“I made a promise to try to save people after that,” Canfield said. “There’s nothing that’s going to stop me.

“There is a ‘Rocky’ quote from one of the movies that says, ‘Life is going to hit you, and it’s going to hit you hard. But you’ve got to get back up because if you let life keep you down, you’ll stay down. You’ll go nowhere.’”

Canfield did not give up after his near-death experience, and after extensive medical tests and eight days in the hospital, he returned to UCM.

Trahern said he couldn’t wait for Canfield to come back.

“I was so glad,” he said. “I was really nervous that they didn’t have an exact answer for what was going on for him. But I’m glad he’s back because I knew being away was stressing him.”

Maloney said the residents on the third floor of Nattinger were stressed and worried about Canfield the whole week he was away, so she and other residents banded together to provide moral support for each other.

“Even while he was gone, we had social events to make sure everyone was doing OK,” she said. “Everyone was really excited for him to come back. We were really ready to have him back.”

She was not alone in her excitement. Many of Canfield’s friends and residents got together to decorate his room and welcome him “home.”

“I came into my hall and there were people waiting outside,” Canfield said. “I walked in my room and everybody was in there with a big surprise. I didn’t cry, but I wanted to cry. I was so happy. It was super sweet. My floor did a great job. They were definitely there for me. I’m trying to be there for them as much as I can.”

Canfield is still getting back into the swing of taking classes, playing rugby and working as a CA. He said the most important thing for people facing difficult situations like his is to look up.

“You have to find a positive in the situation,” he said. “If you can’t find a positive you’re not thinking hard enough.”

While the cause of Canfield’s seizure remains unknown, doctors suspect it was stress-related.

Maloney said everyone worked to make his transition back into school as easy as possible.

“We all pitched in to make sure things were as stress-free as possible for him when he came back,” she said.

Canfield said he is dealing with the aftermath of his seizure and the hospital stay. He said no matter who you are, rough times are going to come your way, but it is about how you handle them.

“You just have to keep going,” Canfield said. “I just had a seizure last week, and I’m already back in school.”