RALEIGH, N.C. (WRAL/CNN Newsource) — A 17-year-old Harnett County cheerleader is recovering at Duke Medical Center after going into cardiac arrest during a recent competition.
 
Keianna Joe is part of a competitive cheerleading team. Her mother, Andrea Joe, said during her warm-up she went to cardiac arrest, which required a shock from an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) to save her life.
 

Keianna is a student at Western Harnett High School, but she cheers competitively for a team in Sanford. She was at a competition on Sunday in Raleigh at Broughton High School. Andrea said she was warming up, when all of the sudden she became unresponsive.

"They had just gotten finished with the very first stunt. At that point of the stunt, they come down to where the girls are holding her in a seated position. When she got to that position, she was unresponsive," Andrea said.

At first, they thought she was having a seizure – but a coach realized she didn't have a pulse. They started CPR, and her mother jumped in to help save her daughter's life.

"I had done two sets of compressions and breaths," she said. "I had looked over and toward my left side, and I finally saw that the AED machine had arrived."

She put the paddles on her daughter. The machine told her an electric shock was needed. She administered the shock and continued CPR until medics arrived.

Keianna was taken to Wake Med. She was then transferred to Duke Medical Center for a cardiac MRI, which confirmed the teenager had suffered a heart attack.

Her mother was thankful an AED was available at the cheering competition.
 
"If we can save one life with the knowledge of how important it is to get the AED," she said. "Every facility that has any kind of athletes and children at all, they need to have one."
 
Keianna remains in the hospital for treatment. 
 
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