On November 7, 2016 the unthinkable happened to Pitman High senior, Jake Zylstra. During Pitman High’s basketball tryouts which Zylstra was attending, his heart gave out and he began having one of the most severe cardiac arrest. The 6 foot 4 senior suddenly collapsed to the ground.

911 was called to the scene immediately, and while Turlock Fire Department paramedics were on their way, Pitman High’s basketball coach Harvey Marable along with his wife Judy performed CPR on Zylstra. After the paramedics arrived they shocked him in the chest nine times with a defibrillator. The process was continued while Zylstra was rushed to the emergency room at Emanuel Medical Center.

Zylstra was unconscious while in an induced coma for two days. When he regained consciousness, he recalls feeling very confused because he had no memory of the incident. When he woke up, a nurse in the hospital told him what had happened and Jake felt very scared because he knew that this was his life now. He was at Emanuel Medical Center for at least a week before he was transferred to University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

Jake was prone to a cardiac arrest because he has extra muscle in his heart which is called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. This disease was passed down by genetics. The fantastic thing about this situation is that on December 22, 2016 a defibrillator was placed on his heart. What it does is it will shock his heart if it gets into a dangerous rhythm.

According to sca-aware.org, 326,200 people in the U.S. experience sudden cardiac arrest and nine out of ten victims die. In 2013 the American Heart Association reported there are 9,500 cases of sudden cardiac arrest annually in youth of eighteen years of age. Fifty-six percent of athletes are prone to cardiovascular disease.

While Zylstra was dealing with the aftermath of his incident, he recalls his family feeling terrified for his well being but they were hopeful for a full recovery and so thankful for everyone that were involved in the whole procedure to his recovery. Zylstra’s mind was not always focused on his incident. He was also worried about not being able to pass his classes in order for him to be able to walk the stage with the rest of his graduating class this Spring. Fortunately, he got some work done while he was in the hospital and passed first semester.

Jake describes how he feels now that everything is over:

“It is great it has given me more of a determination to achieve my goals and now that it happened it will make me stronger.”