Alumnus reunites with UCLA Rec staffers who saved his life

When Edward Jean-Louis was a graduate student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, he often played basketball to re-energize himself and unwind from studying. Having played basketball his entire life, he felt at home on the court. He never imagined that it would also be the place where he would almost die.But in 2016, when Jean-Louis was playing basketball with a friend at UCLA ’s John Wooden Center, he began to feel lightheaded and abruptly dropped to the ground. He had experienced sudden death syndrome, an often-fatal heart condition that occurs with no warning signs or symptoms when the heart’s electrical system is not working properly.Jean-Louis, now 31  and an entrepreneur, survived because two student workers and a member of the recreation center staff grabbed an external defibrillator and performed CPR on him. But Jean-Louis never got the chance to meet and thank his saviors until recently.This month, he shared a heartwarming reunion on the same basketball court where he had collapsed with two of them — Emily Duncan, who was a UCLA student worker in 2016, and Christine Frye, who was a staff member at the Wooden Center. (Brandon Brown, the other student who helped revive Jean-Louis, was unable to attend the reunion.) Joining them was Dr. Olujimi Ajijola, the cardiologist at UCLA Health who treated Jean-Louis after the incident.“I know the story doesn’t end this way for most people,” Jean-Louis said. “I am so grateful to have had a second chance a...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news