'Thankful' volleyball girl, 17, tells of surviving heart attack

ATLANTA -- A few days ago, most of the world did not know 17-year-old Claire Crawford.

That was before more than 12 million people watched a video of her dying and being brought back to life on a volleyball court.

The video from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Claire's story have sparked a conversation about the life-saving importance of having automated external defibrillators at all schools. "We had two games that night. I was in a lot of pain which I was used to, because I'd been playing in pain the entire season."

Claire had already had shoulder surgery, but the pain was still there the night of October 13th at Loganville Christian Academy. In video taken by her dad, who had set up a camera on a tripod, Claire is seen rubbing the left side of her upper chest, clearly in pain.

Julie Sirmans, the dean of the lower school at Loganville Christian and a volleyball mom herself, chokes up talking about Claire that night. "You could tell she was laboring somewhat, but Claire just has the heart of a champion, and she's just going to keep playing."

Eric Crawford was right there next to the court, scoring his daughter's game. "I was sitting at the scorer's table keeping score for the game, and I just heard a loud thud."

Mom Lisa just remembers, "I think we just started yelling for help."

"You had a feeling of helplessness," Eric remembers. There were people there immediately, springing into action, going to work.

Sirmans says, "Starting back in 2006, our school got the first AED. Part of that training we would come together and have drills, unannounced." The school now has four AED's placed strategically throughout the school. She says the training paid off when the worst case scenario happened in front of her. "Because of the code blue drills, there were some things that were just instinctual to me. Go grab the AED, bring it back, and get to work."

It is the very worst fear for any parent, to watch your child collapse, to have no pulse, especially when time is ticking away. Eric says, "You really can't describe just the fear you had going through your mind."

Claire's mom recalls, "It really looked like they were running a drill, that it was so quickly that people were to Claire, and they were taking care of her. It was amazing."

Sirmans, who was one of the people who saved Claire's life says, "She was in v fib and so the only thing that would bring her heart back into a viable rhythm was to have a shock. The AED was needed in order to bring her back to life."

Claire's parents say seeing her revived was "complete joy."

Recalling her experience, Claire says, "I'm just really thankful and I feel really blessed that this was where I chose to go to school, just really thankful."

Watch: Dad inadvertently records teen's cardiac arrest

Her mother says, "We know that God created her, and He knew about this moment before it happened, and He knew who would be here and what the outcome would be and what we would be responsible to do going forward -- share her story."

The AED is why Claire is still here, under the care of doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for ventricular fibrillation. Her parents never want her far from this life-saving device. "We wouldn't let our child participate in a sport anywhere at this point if there wasn't an AED machine accessible. Waiting until someone is gone is not a good time."