The Daily Times

Maryville High School rising sophomore Jacob Alexander is a life saver.

On Monday night, Alexander, 16, administered CPR to a man who had collapsed while playing basketball.

Alexander continued to administer CPR until help arrived.

The man, who is in his late 50s, often comes to John Sevier, where Alexander plays basketball, although he doesn’t know his name.

“He always comes out and plays, but he has heart problems or something, and it was really hot that day.” Alexander said.

The teenager is a lifeguard and a swim instructor at John Sevier Pool, and he learned CPR from the Blount County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

“They have an awesome program,” said Alexander’s mother, Kathy Alexander, of the Red Cross.

When his father came to pick him up Monday night, all of the kids who were still at John Sevier clapped and cheered as Jacob walked to the car.

“All of them just stopped playing and clapped,” Scott Alexander said. Jacob had just gotten off work when the incident occurred.

“I guess he passed out. I don’t know what happened. I just started CPR,” Alexander said.

Fear scale: 10

Alexander said that on a fear scale he was about a “10” but, “I knew I had to do it. No one else knew how to do it. It was either me or nothing. When I noticed he had started to breathe, I wasn’t nervous anymore.”

Now that the ordeal is done, his friends and family cannot contain their pride. Alexander’s mother said that her son was shocked to see the event on Facebook the night the incident occurred. Alexander doesn’t care about being a hero. He just cares about the man he saved.

“I was just excited that the guy was OK, that he didn’t die. I feel like I accomplished what I was trained to do. It actually worked,” Alexander said.

Now that this ordeal is over, Alexander can return to his normal life and start looking to his future.

“I want to go to college or maybe learn to be a police officer,” Alexander said.

Now his family just wishes they could check on the man whose name they never knew.