Report cites Burnham response

A feature story in the Feb. 4 Spokesman Review related the response of Blaze Burnham in saving the life of Eli Emerson, now a senior on the Central Valley basketball team which campaigns in the Greater Spokane League. Burnham is a former advanced registered nurse practitioner at Whitman Medical Center in Colfax who served duty stints in the Whitman Hospital emergency room for 16 years.

The SR story by Greg Lee gives an account of how Emerson returned to hoop action after being floored two years ago by cardiac arrest.

Burnham, who played basketball at St. John, is now the athletic director at Liberty High School. His oldest boy, Match, graduated after leading the Lancers in the state finals last year, and is now playing for Carroll College in Montana. The Burnhams' second son, Chase, is now a junior on the Lancer team which topped the NE south league campaign and is in the NE tourney this week.

According to Lee's account, the Burnhams two years ago traveled with eastern Washington's elite summer team to play in a summer tournament at Bellevue. Emerson, who had finished his freshman year at Central Valley, was with the team and fell face down on the court early in the first game after sustaining cardiac arrest.

The report said Burnham instinctively jumped out of the bleachers, ran to Emerson on the court, found he had no pulse and then punched the youth in his chest to restart his heart. Burnham began compression strokes on Emerson's chest, and the youth began to respond before paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. Emerson eventually made it back to play basketball and now plays with a pacemaker in a pocket shirt under his game jersey.