For some, time spent on a college campus can be life-changing. For one visitor to the Lebanon Valley College campus, it was a life-saving experience.

Just after Easter break in April, a man in his late 40s collapsed on the college's indoor track.

Athletic trainer Jim Stark, head softball coach Stacey Hollinger and head women's basketball coach Todd Goclowski ran quickly to the scene after noticing some commotion on the track.

After realizing the man was not breathing and confirming that 911 had been called, they reached for the Zoll Automatic External Defibrillator that was stationed nearby. The trio was able to follow the precise instructions from the high-tech product and get the victim's heart beating again. They continued following the AED's instructions and performing CPR until medical personnel arrived.

"Every one of our coaches is trained in CPR and on the AED and certified annually," said Stark, who for the last decade has been conducting Lebanon Valley's annual training sessions for coaches and student athletic trainers. "Any of our coaches could have done the same thing - that's the important thing to remember. It reinforces for us how important ongoing and regular training is."

According the athletics staff members on site, the man wouldn't have survived the 7-10 minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive. The extremely grateful survivor and his entire family, including his parents who had traveled from Puerto Rico, made a surprise visit to a softball game about a week after the incident to say thank you.

"This was life-affirming for me, and the man's joy was contagious," said Goclowski. "I've always been an advocate for training, but when you save a man's life because of it, it's life-changing."

"More than 25 people stood there taking this photo and it occurred to me that this situation could have turned out so differently if not for the great training and equipment we had here at Lebanon Valley," added Hollinger.

The fact that trained staff and an AED were available made the difference between living and dying for this one person.

Said Stark, "Sometimes it takes a tragedy like campus shootings or fires to force change, and sometimes, one great outcome, one life saved, reinforces all the reasons and the expense of why we do the training we do and have the equipment we have."

Like Lebanon Valley, the vast majority of colleges conduct regular CPR training for athletics personnel, and the NCAA encourages it. Stark, however, would like to see more resources put into equipping more schools with AEDs.

"In this case, this product made the difference between life and death, and even though we have three AEDs on campus, I'd like to see more - maybe in police cars or other buildings."