GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – A family gathered Monday at an Upstate middle school to raise awareness on the importance of automated external defibrillator, or AED, training.

December 9 started out as a normal school day for Josh King’s daughter, Wila, who attends Sevier Middle School.

“It was a Thursday and we’re on the way to school. I take her to school in the mornings and she was talking that she had to run a mile,” King said.

But that day ended up taking a turn for the worse.

“I got a call on the radio for a seizure, collected my things, went out to the track and we saw the student laying there lifeless,” Amy Snips, Sevier Middle School’s nurse said. “We arrived at the track for a seizure call and quickly realized this is not a seizure.”

Snips realized the student was not having a seizure but was in cardiac arrest.

Staff sprang into action to administer the AED.

“We went ahead and attached the pads, when the machine said to ‘shock,’ we went ahead and shocked. There is really no amount of CPR that will change a heart rhythm, it was the AED that saved her,” said Snips.

The memory of the incident is fuzzy for eighth grader Wila.

“I don’t remember anything, but I was told that I was running a mile and that I just collapsed,” Wila said.

What is remembered is how lives are saved by those who are AED trained.

“I think what I heard is it’s mostly for the older generation, but you just never know who has genetics that causes their hearts not to pump correctly,” King said. “There is a staff that knows how to jump to it and really save people’s lives… wow.”

The family shared their story alongside school district officials and the Medical University of South Carolina where Wila received treatment after the incident.

King’s older sister, Hope, also went into cardiac arrest at school 10 years prior. The family said her life was also saved by an AED.