Dennis Williams and Steve Stricker Save a Life at Charlotte

It was a game day and our sponsorship people had sold a “Court of Dreams” package to a business. Basically, the package includes getting to play pick-up on the game floor, dinner and tickets to the game.

I had just finished working out and was checking my messages. Josh Rosen, our assistant PR guy at the time, called my office from his cell and said “You better get out here, there’s a guy having a heart attack”. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about and he clarified he was in the arena and there was a Court of Dreams group out there. I grabbed the AED and headed toward the court.

Our radio guy, Scott Lauer, had also contacted my assistant Dennis and Dennis had arrived on the scene about 20-30 seconds before I did. Dennis assessed the situation and made sure 911 had been activated, which it had. Dennis checked vitals and began CPR and I got the AED opened and put the pads on the patient. The first AED assessment advised to deliver a shock and I did that. Dennis checked ABCs again and then continued CPR. I dealt with a couple people in the group who were nervous and a little traumatized by the patient’s reaction to the shock. We left the AED on and it assessed again but did not advise another shock, just to continue CPR. The EMTs arrived shortly after the second AED assessment and they took over and intubated the patient and transported him to the hospital.

We found out the next day the patient was in critical condition but stable and 2 days after that we found out that he was going to be OK.