15-year-old dies during Savannah's celebration

SAVANNAH, Ga. --- Police briefly halted Savannah's sprawling St. Patrick's Day parade Friday when a 15-year-old boy collapsed among the crowd of thousands and later died after being rushed to a hospital.

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Associated Press

John Giblin, of Belmar, N.J., plays with the Pipes and Drums of the Jersey Shore during the St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah, Ga. Savannah draws up to 400,000 parade revelers each year.

The death was an uncommon tragedy for this coastal city's biggest holiday, when up to 400,000 people line the cobblestone streets with plastic cups of beer to toast the procession of pipe-and-drum bands, gaudy floats and dignitaries riding in shamrock-decorated convertibles.

Savannah-Chatham County police were investigating the death of the boy, identified as Mark Dorsey, of nearby Rincon, but there was no indication of foul play, spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson said. Mark had a pre-existing medical condition, Sgt. Wilson said, that might have contributed to his death.

Elizabeth Stephens wept as she described how she sat in her chair by the curb watching the parade near the Savannah riverfront when the boy collapsed face-first into her lap.

"He was standing by me and all of a sudden he fell all over me," said Ms. Stephens, who was visiting Savannah from Newington in northern Georgia. "His face was already blue."

Spectator Kay Hirsch said onlookers immediately began to dial 911 on their cell phones as the boy's father watched as though in shock. Police stopped the parade for about 15 minutes so an ambulance could get in to rush the boy to the hospital.

Before the ambulance arrived, Kelly Bobbitt -- an emergency room nurse watching the parade nearby -- began administering CPR with the help of another off-duty nurse in the crowd.

"When I got to him, he had no pulse," she said. "Then he got a pulse back, a very faint pulse. But he'd take a breath only every two or three minutes."

Ms. Bobbitt said she suspected the boy might have had a heart condition. When she lifted his shirt, she said, she noticed a scar down the center of his chest "like you would have from open-heart surgery."

Savannah's parade has evolved into the city's most lucrative tourist event and the South's biggest street party between Mardis Gras and Florida's bustling spring break.

Serious mishaps are a rarity, though the 2004 parade was marred when a parade convertible veered off the route and plowed into crowded Wright Square, injuring nine people.

Though Savannah typically marks St. Pat's on the traditional March 17, the city's largely Catholic parade organizers scheduled it three days early to avoid celebrating Monday during Holy Week -- the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.