NC middle school student dies after cardiac arrest at football practice

A Northwest Guilford Middle School student went into cardiac arrest during football practice on Friday and later died.

Vanessa Clark, Caden Sorrell's older sister, said Friday was just a normal day before her world flashed before her eyes.

"I was actually in the middle of Walmart, got the call, my mom called me, and I immediately rushed to him," she said.

"Caden was an angel from heaven, he was brilliant, sweet, smart, kind, he made everybody around him feel loved," Clark said.

Clark said her 13-year-old brother had just started football practice and ran a lap around the football field and then went into cardiac arrest.

"He was a picture of health, we don't know why [it happened], but it did," Clark said.

She described her favorite memory with her brother, who wore number 42 for the Northwest Guilford Middle School Vikings and loved the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"We were trying to wrestle because I thought I could take him, and I couldn't," she said. "He taught me the hard way that I could not, but it was just the laughter that we shared together."

A friend of the family said they want to ensure automatic external defibrillators (AEDs), which aid in cardiac arrest, are in more accessible places, bringing awareness to the device.

"They're very expensive," Alan Vaughn said. "You can't expect an AED to be in every room, but sometimes it takes [something] like this to push the awareness."

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