After being revived, North Rowan senior pushes for lifesaving device

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — North Rowan High School student Henderson Lentz was declared dead for 11 minutes and brought back to life with a defibrillator.

Lentz, who was a sophomore at the time, collapsed in June 2015 during basketball camp at Catawba College.

(Henderson Lentz)

His mother and coach watched the teen on the floor fighting for his life.

“How could he be dead?” said Henderson’s mother, Jill Lentz. "I just started screaming out, 'We need help, we need help!”

“The whole 11 minutes I was out, I actually thought I was in a dribbling competition,” Henderson Lentz said.

Medical staff at Catawba College was able to revive Lentz using CPR and an automated external defibrillator, also known as an AED.

“He kept hearing me say, 'Don't quit, don't quit,'” Henderson Lentz’s coach, Andrew Mitchell, said.

School officials purchased the device months before the incident.

The student is now part of an effort to raise money for additional AEDs across the county, which includes a fundraiser on Saturday during the Rowan County Senior All-Star Basketball Game.

Tickets are $5 each with the event running from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at North Rowan High School.

“It does affect people and it's important for everybody to know,” he said.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

• The Latest: Attack on Parliament
• Homicide investigation near northwest Charlotte elementary school
• Police identify man shot dead outside southeast Charlotte apartments
• Abandoned 4-foot-long ball python found on Iredell Co. walking trail
• VIDEO: Teacher accused of having improper relationship with student
• CMS removes book that was to be part of anti-bullying lesson
• Vets warn dog owners about threat of leptospirosis

Cox Media Group