Former Illinois State player has cardiac arrest during G-League game

[Da Coach]

Zeke Upshaw, who played 3 seasons for ISU (he also redshirted one season) and he played 1 season as a grad-transfer for Hofstra, collapsed during the 4th quarter of an NBA G-League game Saturday night. He remains hospitalized in critical condition-

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2766474-nba-g-league-player-zeke-upshaw-rushed-to-hospital-after-collapsing-on-court

He had played 28 minutes in the game for the Grand Rapids Drive, and scored 11 points. It was the last regular-season game of the season, and the win by the Drive helped secure a playoff spot for them-

http://gleague.nba.com/games/20180324/LINGRD/

Here is video of the final minute when he collapsed. What is extremely disturbing is that Upshaw laid motionless on the floor for several minutes until carried off on a stretcher, and at no time was CPR, AED defibrillator (which was available) or any cardiac assistance given to him despite what is being called cardiac arrest-

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gu07n

And an even more bizarre twist- a couple hours ago, the team tweeted that Upshaw had passed away, and multiple teammates tweeted "RIP Zeke Upshaw". But now they have deleted the tweets and are saying he is still alive, but in critical condition. This does not sound good.

[tornado]

every athletic event ought to have some trained medical personnel that can spot such a collapse and potential cardiac arrest and do CPR...

as many times as it has happened - especially at the highest level of athletics - it is incomprehensible that nobody seemed to know what was going on or what to do...
the personnel just ran over to him, and then let him lay there untouched for several minutes for no apparent reason!
They made a HUGE mental mistake and and failed to do the one thing that might well have saved him.

As some will recall - a similar situation occurred with a college player named Hank Gathers who was a truly great player, led the nation in scoring & rebounding & would have had a tremendous Karl-Malone-like NBA career...
Gathers collapsed and even tho attended right away by personnel - nobody thought to perform CPR and they just assumed his heart was beating and waited for an ambulance - but by the time the ambulance got there- it was too late.

[Big Mike]

Wow...looks like he did pass away today. RIP Zeke.

[BUfan39]

Wow that's really sad. RIP Zeke.

[mvcfan]

Very sad deal. By all accounts he was always a very polite kid. He appeared to always be positive and handle himself well. RIP

[tornado]

I am sad and shocked by this....so tragic for everyone involved and Zeke's family....

but I hope they can learn from this and take several actions...and just because I have had some medical training and been involved with resuscitating individuals in this very situation...I feel compelled to ask why nobody did CPR right away on Zeke?

-first - the Taylor Brown situation here at Bradley told us that the most common disorder that is associated with sudden cardiac death in young athletes is a hypertrophied heart...and that CAN BE screened for and found.

But why not have every pro basketball player undergo an echocardiogram - non-invasive, painless, risk-free and capable of finding most cases of this abnormal heart condition.

-then definitely any time an athlete goes down like this,
A- someone MUST call 911 instantly - do not delay 4-5 minutes to see if the athlete "snaps out of it"
B- even if he/she's still conscious - the defibrillator device should be instantly taken to his side and used to determine his heart rhythm...then used to shock the rhythm back to normal if possible. Hopefully someone in attendance will be trained to do so.
But even if not, then CPR/cardiac massage by anyone familiar with the technique has to be done immediately!! This case - as well as the Hank Gathers case show that any delay in performing CPR tremendously reduces the likelihood of survival.

-Here's the published success/survival statistics on ATHLETES with sudden cardiac arrest (these stats differ from studies on sick people with chronically diseased hearts either in or out of a hospital)
....

-if no CPR is done in the first 5 minutes - <10%
-if CPR is done quickly even by minimally trained bystander - 25%
-and if CPR is done AND a defibrillator is used - 54%


one of the next most common scenarios - a blow to the heart or chest like a kid getting hit by a baseball - cannot be screened for but all the same rules above apply - if the kid goes down then someone has to initiate CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation).

[Da Coach]

Zeke Upshaw, who played 3 seasons for ISU (he also redshirted one season) and he played 1 season as a grad-transfer for Hofstra, collapsed during the 4th quarter of an NBA G-League game Saturday night.....

What is extremely disturbing is that Upshaw laid motionless on the floor for several minutes until carried off on a stretcher, and at no time was CPR, AED defibrillator (which was available) or any cardiac assistance given to him despite what is being called cardiac arrest-

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gu07n

Zeke Upshaw's mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the National Basketball Association, the Detroit Pistons, SSJ Group, owners of the Grand Rapids Drive, and the Deltaplex Arena, where the game was held.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23651050/the-mother-g-league-player-died-march-suing-nba-detroit-pistons-negligence-son-death

Upshaw was playing for the Grand Rapids Drive (the G-League team of the Detroit Pistons) when he collapsed while playing and died 2 months ago.