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Friends, Family Celebrate Life Of Del Oro Teen Who Suffered Heart Attack

LOOMIS (CBS13) - His family and friends say even at 14 Lucas Armand knew how to live life to the fullest. Now they're celebrating his best moments as the Loomis teen is laid to rest Friday, more than a year after a heart attack.

"He was always just really happy," said friend Sammy Strong.

"He was always there for me," said Jacqueline Armand, Lucas' sister.

At such a young age, Lucas did what many dream they can accomplish in a lifetime.

"We started playing baseball in first grade," said Strong.

Lucas was an athlete -- an avid runner who was on the Del Oro High School cross country team. He'd earned medal after medal and many trophies, but his friends and family remember Lucas not just for his athletic abilities, but remember him mostly for his willingness to help his family, friends, and strangers.

"When he was little, when he was in kindergarten, he would share his scissors with you when no one else would," friend Maren Macleod said. "That's the kind person he was."

Some of his friends were with him the day he went into cardiac arrest, after a day of miniature golf in the fall of 2011.

"We don't know why his heart stopped," mother Nikki Armand said.

Emergency responders would revive him 45 minutes later, but Lucas would be left with brain damage. Doctors put Lucas in a medically induced coma, but he never fully recovered. Lucas died of pneumonia in December.

"It's just sinking in that I'm not going to be able to talk to him or see him or look into his eyes," said Nikki.

Lucas left such a lasting impression on those he met with his smile, his energy, and with how much he wanted to give to others, that everyone decided to celebrate how Lucas chose to live his life, his dad says.

"Definitely a better man than me. I mean he was destined to do great things, I know that," Lucas' father said.

Lucas was 15 when he died.

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