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GREENSBORO — If Chris Dalldorf's heart was going to betray him, it could hardly have picked a better place.

Chris is a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Greensboro Day School with no history of medical problems. On March 3 , he was playing Battle Ball , a form of dodgeball, in the school gym. As he stepped behind some rolled-up wrestling mats, he collapsed against the wall and slid to the floor.

His heart had gone into an irregular rhythm — one that couldn't keep him alive. He had no pulse. He wasn't breathing.

But Greensboro Day has three portable devices called automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, on campus. These devices, each one hardly bigger than a lunch box, can shock a person's heart back into a normal rhythm.

Greensboro Day's students are required to learn how to use them, and many faculty and staff members are trained, as well.

One of the AEDs was in a coaches' office just off the gym where Chris lay. The school's nurse, Linda Sudnik; its director of sports medicine, Jon Schner; and assistant trainer Mike Gale were moments away.

After students alerted them, Sudnik and Schner arrived and began rescue breathing and chest compressions. When Gale brought the device to the gym, they used it to shock Chris's heart. The shock didn't return Chris's heartbeat to normal, Schner said, but it did create a better rhythm, one that could sustain life.

By the time an ambulance arrived, Chris had a pulse and was breathing on his own again.

"(Doctors) basically told us, two more minutes and Chris wouldn't have been with us," Schner said.

Chris was taken to Moses Cone Hospital but transferred that same day to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. There, specialists tried to figure out what had caused his heartbeat to go bad and to decide on treatment that would minimize the chance of a recurrence.

They also treated him for a concussion he had sustained, apparently when he fell.

On March 10 , doctors implanted a pacemaker in Chris's chest. It can shock his heart back into a normal rhythm if another problem develops.

"We told him, 'You can have Linda (Sudnik) stay with us forever or you could have the defibrillator,'" said Chris's father, Pete Dalldorf, who is a physician.

On March 14 , Chris came home from the hospital. He'll be taking medicine for the rest of his life that should help keep his heartbeat normal. Although he can no longer participate in contact sports, he can play tennis and golf.

He returned to school for part of the day on Tuesday.

The kind of heartbeat abnormality that Chris had was most likely a rare, inherited condition, said Dr. Michael Simmons , director of pediatric intensive care services at Moses Cone and one of a dozen or more Cone staffers who treated Chris before his transfer to Chapel Hill.

In about 50 percent of cases, the bad heart rhythm is associated with a specific genetic abnormality, Simmons said. Chris has been tested for that abnormality, but the results won't be available for weeks, he said.

If the abnormality is found in Chris, his family members also will be tested, Simmons said.

His three sisters also were tested for possible heart problems. None were found.

Besides shocking Chris's heart back into a better rhythm, the AED also recorded several minutes' worth of data about Chris's heartbeat onto a memory card. The data from that card proved crucial in helping doctors figure out what had happened.

The elder Dalldorf says he has much to reflect on, such as the kindness and generosity of family and friends and the skills of the medical personnel who treated Chris.

But he also thinks it's important for AEDs to be in more places, along with people trained in their use, as was the case at Greensboro Day.

"(Doctors) said it may never happen again, but if it did, he might not be lucky enough to be near Linda Sudnik again," Pete Dalldorf said.

He said he now looks for AEDs when he visits public places. Guilford County Schools does not require an AED in every school, but each high school and middle school has at least one, spokeswoman Lillian Govus said. They're being added at elementary schools, but only a few have them so far, she said.

Pete Dalldorf is just grateful that equipment and trained personnel were close by when his son collapsed.

"It feels different hugging my little boy now," he said. "(Sudnik) gave me my best friend back."

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lex.alexander@news-record.com