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File photo of walkers in America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk in Utica who get water from a water cooler set up in front of Our Lady of the Rosary outside of Utica College.

(File photo by Jennifer Grimes)

Utica, NY -- New Hartford High School senior Ben Sklar was born with congenital heart disease 18 years ago, but surgery corrected the problem when he was just 3 days old.

Dr. Bradley Sklar and his son, Ben Sklar, 18.

Sklar has led a normal childhood, playing on his school's football and lacrosse teams. He runs on the cross country team. And he's participated in the Boilermaker road race.

For the last seven years, he's also done what he can to give back.

Team Ben had raised more than $75,000 for the American Heart Association going into this year's America's Greatest Heart Run & Walk in Utica. With 200 people on his team this year, Sklar hoped to raise another $10,000.

Although the total amount raised isn't known yet, Sklar's team gave back in a way they never thought possible during Saturday's run/walk.

A 66-year-old man on the ARC Team had walked past Ben Sklar and his father, Dr. Bradley Sklar, and a group of nurses, most of whom were on Team Ben.

Courtney Daviau, a registered nurse who works with Dr. Sklar, said she saw the man -- later identified by state police as 66-year-old Michael W. Wofford -- collapse a half-mile from the finish line, near the intersection of Burrstone Road and Washington Drive in New Hartford. Wofford, of Glenfield in Lewis County, had suffered a heart attack during the heart walk, state police said later.

Daviau ran to help. Another registered nurse, Julie Smith, was a few feet closer and had yelled she thought maybe the man was having a seizure. Then Smith and Daviau leaned down and opened his mouth to check his airway. Daviau said she rolled the man over and noticed he had stopped breathing and had turned blue.

By this time, Brad Sklar, a Utica doctor who specializes in gastroenterology, said he saw the commotion and came to help. He started 30 deep, rapid compressions to the man's chest as his son stood nearby, watching. Daviau then gave the man two mouth-to-mouth breaths. Smith counted aloud and another registered nurse, Tammy DePerno, ran to get supplies, and alerted troopers Adam Ferstand and Daniel Krajewskian.

Ferstand grabbed an automated external defibrillator from his patrol car while Krajewski requested an ambulance via radio.

As soon as DePerno and the troopers returned with the AED, Dr. Sklar put the pads on the man and pushed a button to shock him. They checked for a pulse. There was none. Sklar and Daviau continued CPR, then shocked the man a second time. "It worked," Sklar said. "He had a pulse and he was moving his body."

Dr. Sklar, Daviau and paramedics rolled Wofford onto a backboard. Paramedics then rushed Wofford to Faxton-St. Luke's Healthcare Facility -- the same hospital where Ben Sklar was born 18 years ago.

Wofford was admitted to the intensive care unit.

The Sklars were happy to hear later that evening that Wofford was doing well. So well, in fact, he was getting ready to eat a meal Saturday night.

Both Dr. Sklar and Daviau said their team's quick response, along with following CPR protocol, is the reason why they were able to "bring this gentleman back with minimal problems," Sklar said.

Team Ben - Ben Sklar, a senior at New Hartford High School, was born with congenital heart disease, but a surgery he had as an infant had allowed him to live a normal life with no problems. He and his team have raised more than $75,000 for the American Heart Association. (File photo of last year year's team. This year, about 200 people were on Team Ben in the heart walk in Utica).

"It was a team approach," he said. "The irony is the American Heart Association taught us to do CPR and here we are using it to bring back a life on the American Heart Association walk."

Dr. Sklar said he's glad to give someone a second chance because his son also was given a second chance.

Within 20 minutes after Ben Sklar's birth, a nurse in the nursery noticed he had turned blue. He was taken to Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, where he had an emergency cardiac catheterization. Doctors performed a balloon septostomy. "They ballooned open the connection between his right and left atrium to keep him alive," his father said. Doctors in Syracuse diagnosed Ben's condition as transposition of the great arteries.

The next day, Dr. Brad Sklar manually gave his 2-day-old son "bagged" breaths using an ambu bag on an air ambulance plane. A cardiovascular surgeon at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City performed a "switch procedure" on Ben at 3 days old. That surgery switched Ben's pulmonary artery and aorta, and corrected the problem, his father said.

"We feel so fortunate," Dr. Brad Sklar said. "My son is alive because of cardiovascular research...

"And now we've come full circle," he said. "(Ben) raises money to help the Heart Association because they saved his life and now he feels he can help give back to his community and help other people with heart problems."