Clark and his team entered the game against Southeast Raleigh 7-0, ready to continue their undefeated streak.
“I knew I was going to have a big game,” the receiver said.
A few plays into the third quarter, Clark said the last thing he remembers was lining up in formation. Seconds later, he was running with the ball when two defenders hit him near the 40-yard line.
Clark collapsed instantly. He was unconscious and stopped breathing.
“I came across and everything kind of blanked out for me,” he said. “Everything went black. I still can’t remember it to this day.”
Krisjon suffered a rare cardiac arrest known as commotio cordis. It’s a heart attack brought on by a hard impact to the chest.
Kris and Latasha Clark remember watching their worst fear come true from the stands.
“At that moment you see something but you’re not quite sure,” Latasha Clark said. “You’re just asking the Lord to be with you.”
Kris Clark said his wife got onto the field first, and remembers hearing her scream, “Jesus, Jesus, get up Krisjon!”
A coach had already cut Krisjon’s jersey and started compressions, which the Kris Clark eventually took over on the field as the athletic trainer, Lakindra McKnight, ran to get the AED.
“I probably did 5-10 compressions and then the AED told us to back up and administer the shock,” Kris Clark said. “They checked and he had a pulse, so then it was about keeping him stable.”
Head Coach Scott Riley told WRAL it was a moment he’ll never forget.
“When he started breathing again, it was the biggest win of my career,” the head coach of more than a decade said. “God makes a big difference, but also God giving people the wisdom to learn CPR and to that training plays a really big role.”
Krisjon Clark was taken to WakeMed Raleigh.
Dr. Graham Snyder was working in the emergency room when the teen was brought in.
The emergency medicine physician said Krisjon survived because those around him didn’t hesitate to jump into action.
“If a person collapses, and they’re not breathing – you start CPR. That’s what happened in this case and that’s what saved this child’s life,” Snyder stated.
The condition is more often seen in children, but Snyder stated that’s likely due to the volume of children playing impact sports compared to adults.
Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin suffered the same kind of heart attack in January 2023 during a NFL game.
“It’s an extremely unlucky, rare phenomenon where if a person is hit in their chest just at the right millisecond, it can start an electrical storm in the heart that is difficult to fix without shocking them back to life,” Snyder explained. “This is rare; we’re talking dozens of cases a year in the United States, of hundreds of millions of people. I don’t want people to be afraid of sports.”
The physician said he has also seen a few other cases where the condition occurred after someone was hit by a karate punch, or hits to the chest with lacrosse and baseballs.
Snyder explained recovery from commotio cordis is largely dependent on how quickly medical aid is administered.
“The AED is profoundly important for saving your life. There’s a chance that compressions might trip the heart back into its normal rhythm, but that’s going to be nowhere near as successful as an AED,” the physician said.
By Grace Hayba
WRAL Health reporter
Oct 24, 2025
Cleveland High School or CvHS is located in unincorporated Johnston County, North Carolina