Kid Captain Camdyn Reisner doesn’t let anything hold her back.

By Elianna Novitch

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At just 21 days old, Camdyn Reisner stopped breathing in her mother’s arms.

The now smiling, energetic 11-year-old from Dubuque is this week’s Kid Captain for the Iowa/Michigan State game.

On the night before she turned 21 days old, Camdyn started acting differently. Mother Mandy Reisner described her as fussy and lethargic.

The Reisners made an appointment to take her in to their pediatrician the next morning. That never happened.

As Reisner lifted Camdyn out of her bassinet, she stopped breathing in her mother’s arms.

“She went completely limp, and I remember exactly when she stopped breathing,” Reisner said.

Mandy’s brother-in-law Greg, a responder for the National Guard, immediately began to preform CPR on Camdyn while they waited for emergency personnel. Camdyn was rushed to their local hospital, where doctors administered CPR for 57 minutes.

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“When they were about to stop because they had exhausted all of their means, the pediatrician found a faint pulse, and the university said that’s good enough,” Reisner said.

Camdyn was airlifted to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital in critical condition.

She underwent MRI and CT scans. The doctor reported to the Reisner family that there was no brain activity and that if she did wake up from the coma, she would be a vegetable.

“They said we needed to start thinking about when we wanted to stop the machines,” Reisner said. “Eric and I both wanted to wait. So, we sat and waited, and one day she opened her eyes.”

Mandy said that nobody knew what the long-term effects would be.

“They ran every test you could think of, but they could not figure out why she stopped breathing,” Reisner said. “We took her home with a heart monitor, and a week or two after we took her home, her heart monitor went off. We took her to our local ER, and at that point Camdyn’s heart rate was over 300.”

The local hospital stabilized Camdyn and airlifted her to Iowa City. She was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, an irregular heartbeat.

After being diagnosed, Camdyn was put on medication and a heart monitor. As most do, Camdyn grew out of the SVT and no longer needs either.

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However, due to oxygen deprivation, she has struggled with developmental delays and spasticity in her legs and uses a walker. However, Camdyn is starting to graduate from a walker to hiking sticks.

“She’s definitely making lots of progress because we were told she would never walk or talk,” Reisner said. “She has definitely had to work very hard to get to where she is now, but the outcome has been pretty amazing and very surprising to her doctors and nurses.”

UI Clinical Professor Ian Law, Camdyn’s cardiologist at the Children’s Hospital, is one of those surprised doctors.

“When I saw the photo of her in the Kid Captain’s magazine, I had the image of her in the ICU after her cardiac arrest [in my head]; it’s remarkable,” he said. “Those are the moments that you realize this is why we do what we do.”

The sister of three siblings, brother Cade and sisters Cashtin and Caymin, she enjoys playing with them and does all she can to keep up with them.

“She doesn’t think that she’s injured, she just plays and does what she does,” Cade said. “She’s very strong.”

The Reisner family are honored to have Camdyn chosen as a Kid Captain.

“We are so very honored and thankful to be asked to be Kid Captain and a part of the whole process,” Reisner said.