UCA Freshman Collapses, heart stops beating

[BEAR]

UCA Men's basketball freshman SK shi-ttu, (name hyphenated for filter purposes) a 6'9" power forward, a Nigerian native and Rogers Arkansas player, was playing in a pickup game at the Farris Center on the UCA campus when suddenly he collapsed and his heart stopped beating....

If it wasn't for the fast thinking of teammates like Otas Iyekekpolar, the Athletic Training staff, and the AED defibrillator, SK would be dead. The AED defibrillator brought him back to life. He was then rushed to a local hospital where he is being evaluated.

****tu was ranked 7th in the class of 2017 in his position averaging 13.4 ppg and 12.2 rebounds per game in high school. He had offers from Houston, LSU, Tulsa, UALR and St. Louis.

His future in basketball is in doubt.

(Information courtesy of The Echo, the UCA newspaper- summarized and shortened.)


Life....I bet those kids on the team were shaken up pretty bad. An age where you think you are invincible, young, healthy..then this...

Get well SK. xdrunkyx

[Wildcat1997]

That's awful to hear. I hope everything turns out ok!

[dbackjon]

Hope he recovers fully

[pokefan02]

Watch them find that he has an enlarged heart due to a congenital heart defect . That is almost always the case . Prayers to him and the team.

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[BEAR]

Watch them find that he has an enlarged heart due to a congenital heart defect . That is almost always the case . Prayers to him and the team.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Yeah. It reminded me of the Len Bias incident. UCA also had a football player that was about to be drafted when his physical showed a heart murmur. Too much stress and it would have given out. His NFL career never came to fruition. Too bad, he was quite the talent.

I wonder how many kids have these conditions and don't know about it until they get "NFL, NBA" level physical exams...and how long they have pushed themselves through it not knowing the danger they were really in...scary.

[walliver]

Yeah. It reminded me of the Len Bias incident. UCA also had a football player that was about to be drafted when his physical showed a heart murmur. Too much stress and it would have given out. His NFL career never came to fruition. Too bad, he was quite the talent.

I wonder how many kids have these conditions and don't know about it until they get "NFL, NBA" level physical exams...and how long they have pushed themselves through it not knowing the danger they were really in...scary.

These events are occasionally discovered at the high school and college level when an athlete suddenly collapses. Unfortunately, the screening required for this is beyond the budgets of most high schools and colleges. Only about 10% of athletes who collapse are successfully resuscitated. If this kid has what most suspect he has, his problem can be controlled with medication and possibly an implanted defibrillator and he can live a fairly normal non-athletic life.

[BEAR]

These events are occasionally discovered at the high school and college level when an athlete suddenly collapses. Unfortunately, the screening required for this is beyond the budgets of most high schools and colleges. Only about 10% of athletes who collapse are successfully resuscitated. If this kid has what most suspect he has, his problem can be controlled with medication and possibly an implanted defibrillator and he can live a fairly normal non-athletic life.

Woah.... yikes....:(